Picasa

This is one of my new favorite programs that Sarah got me hooked on! It is a free download through Google.

It is fun way to enhance and change your photos!

As you can tell from the picture above I made the original picture black and white and made just her tutu in color.

I love it!

TuTu Cute....

AM
I

TUTU

CUTE

OR

What ????

This is the tutu I was thrilled to find! Can't you see why I had to have it!!!

I can't wait to take some more or professional pic in it???

Girls Weekend Fun in Chicago.... In Celebration of Angie and Amy's 30th Birthdays....

Friday Night Relaxing.... Amy, Angie and I arrived in Chicago around 8pm Friday night! We were all exhausted from a long week of working and decided that we were just going to hang out in our room and get some rest!

Hang out is exactly what we did and it was perfect! We cracked open a bottle or two of wine, painted some nails, watch a movie and sat around giggled like we were teenagers again! It was a great night!

We were all fast asleep by midnight! Wanted to be rested for a big Saturday!

A Fun Morning in Millennium Park

After sleeping in a little bit...we all got ready to hit the town! We started off with the much needed Starbucks!
Then Katerine had suggested we check out Millennium Park and we are so glad we did!

It has the most beautiful gardens of greens and flowers, amazing architecture and fun activities for the whole family including water towers!

The picture below is us playing around in front of the bean.

Shopping all afternoon....

Next stop....Shopping

How could you not shop while in Chicago! (although our boys would be proud of how little we bought) We walked up Michigan Ave and hit the Nordstorm Shoe department...checking out all the new Fall Fashions...some that will never be seen on our feet!

Then we got a taxi to Lincoln Park where we enjoyed many cute boutique like stores! A neat area to live!
My favorite store was stinky pants a cute children's store in Lincoln Park where I found a adorable tutu for Bella that I had been regretting not buying while we were in Michigan.
On our way home we hit the opposite side of Michigan Ave we couldn't believe how many people were out!

We were all impressed with how clean and well kept Chicago seemed to be! There were gardens all up and down the streets!

Our Saturday Night Out on the town....

Next....

A night out on the town!
We started our evening out by dining at a fabulous restaurant Scoozi,

thanks to another one of Katherine's wonderful suggestions. We all enjoyed wonderful dinner and some Moscato D'Asti...a wine that I was thrilled to be reintroduced too!

We continue the evening with going to see Wicked.

A phenomenal show! The actress who plays the Wicked Witch has a amazing voice!

I loved the show and the story!

BRAVO!!!!

Check it out if you are in Chicago...it is well worth the money!!!!
After the show we went to a wine bar for dessert and some more chatting!

We still had it... even though we were 30! Not going to bed until 2am...especially Katherine for being 7 months pregnant...way to go, girl!!!

This was one of the best days/nights I had enjoyed for a long time!

Sunday we all slept in and packed up to go home!

We did take a little detour to the Michigan City outlet malls where we got some fun stuff for our baby girls...didn't go into one adult store! How times have changed!

I think we all came home rejuvenated and ready to get our hands on our babies!!!!

A WONDERFUL weekend get-away!!!

THANKS for our wonderful husbands for funding the trip and watching our girls so we could go!

Also to Grammy J and Grandpa for watching Bella since Tim had to work Saturday and Sunday night!

Katherine...THANKS for helping me plan and organize and fun Saturday night and joining us for the celebrating!!! It was GREAT to see you

Amy & Angie....THANKS for leaving home for the weekend without your girls and being up for lots of fun! HAPPY 30th!!!! Love you both!!!

Bella Talking About Her Weekend!!!

Great Aunt Beth took video from her cell phone this weekend of Bella! I just thought it was soo cute! As you can tell she is quite the talker...daddy being her favorite word with HI coming in a close second! We might need ear plugs when all the blabbering becomes words!

We can't wait!!!

THANKS mom and dad for watching Bella so I could have my girls get-away....more pictures to come about our trip to Chicago!!!


If you can't tell...She is blowing a kiss and telling every one what fun she is having at Grammy J's and Grandpa's!

Na,Na, Na, Na....Na, na, na, na...hey, hey, hey....good bye!!!

We are bottle free in the Maines household now! Since Thursday afternoon Bella has only been drinking out of sippy cups like a champ! We had the meal time sippy cup down for awhile now but she wasn't quite ready to give it up in the morning and bedtime bottle. We got the Nuby cup thanks to Angie and Amber suggestion and she didn't make a fuss about the change! We are so proud of our little girl! Although a little sad about how big she is getting!

We also have no more baby food in the the house since she won't have anything to do with it!

It felt good to clean out 2 cabinets and have more space for our cups now!

What a weekend....

We started out Friday afternoon to meet Little Miss Libby at the hospital. She is so precious and sweet! Her head full of hair cracks me up, she had enough to wear Bella's bow actually has more than Bella. I was so glad to get to meet her before I was off to work!
Bella was off to Lebanon to spend some time with Grandma and Papaw. Then Aunt Suzi picked her up and took her swimming with Wyatt and friends which she loved! She spent the night and all of Saturday with them and had tons of fun!!!THANKS for letting her spend time there with you guys!
Saturday Tim got to play golf with some friends and my mom and I went to a trunk show of fabulous kids clothes at Angie's house! We wanted one of everything but we knew our checkbooks couldn't support that! So we settled on a adorable dress and cute tights!!!
We all met up at for dinner with the Carney family! It was fun to see their daughter, Elizabeth and Bella interact and have fun together!
Sunday we were off for another busy day of visiting! First we saw Grandma Ballard at the new rehab center she is at. We knew that just seeing Bella's little face would brighten her day! We had a very nice visit with her. Then we took Tim to meet Libby at home! He had to get his baby fix!
Then we were off to Fallyn's 1st Birthday celebration!!! It was so much fun!
Bella was sound of sleep at 8:15 after her busy weekend!

Fallyn's 1st Birthday Celebration!!!

I Love This Icing Stuff!!!

Fallyn blowing her candles out with Mommy & Daddy...it was his birthday too!

The cards and tissue were her favorite!

Bella blowing the Birthday Girl a special Kiss!

The Ranek's

The Reusser's

The Warner's

We all enjoyed a day of celebrating for Fallyn's 1st Birthday and Gordie's 31st!

Meeting Little Miss Libby...

She is so sweet!

Bella was excited to meet another girlfriend!

Sister Love....

Alex will be such a good big sister!

The Girls!
Can you see years of fun ahead!

Mommy and her girls!


Daddy and their girls!!!

Happy to finally be home with their family!

Fun at the Fair

Let's start with the important stuff...Fair Food....

Corn, Corn Dogs, Ribeye and Pork Sandwiches, Lemon Shake-ups, and you can't forget the Elephant Ears

Bella was having so much fun just watching all the lights and people... little did she know we were about to go see all the farm animals!

Grand Champions Piggies BAAYE sheep we're mooooving onto the cows.
Bella was practicing...what a sheep says???

Baaa

"I can't believe all of these animals, Wyatt...I love them!"

Let's have fun on the midway....

Bella's first carousel ride! She loved it until the very end!

Look, how big Wyatt is riding the dinosaurs all by himself!

Yeah, it was another great trip to the Indiana State Fair! It was a late night for Wyatt and Bella but they both were having so much fun they didn't realize what time it was! How lucky we are to have kids who just go with the flow!

Elizabeth Catherine is Here!!!!

"Libby"

Libby was born this morning at 1:58 am.

She weighed 9lbs 4oz.

She was 20 3/4 inches long.

She has a full hair of dark curly hair and has lots of her daddy's features.

Mommy, Daddy and Big Sister Alex are all doing great!

Fallyn Rae is ONE!!!!

We can't believe a year has gone by since the adorable little Fallyn was born! Once again the anticipation of her arrival and then her big day brought so much excitement to us! We remember being one of the first to meet her and how sweet and content she was! She didn't make a peep the first time we saw her yet she has been on the go, go, go and talking ever since then!

Fallyn shows the other girls how everything is done! She is so smart and gets everywhere in seconds! We see how she keeps her mommy and daddy busy!

We have loved watching you grow, learn and love over the last year and look forward to all the fun years to come as you all grow up together!

May you always know how much the world has to offer you, explore and love it all!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

We love you!
Tim, Alli & Bella Raye

PS HAPPY 31st BIRTHDAY GORDIE!!! What a treat to share this special day with your little girl...the best birthday present ever!

I pulled this picture off the Ranek's blog...I love the do-rag and think she looks so cute!!!

11 months

Happy Birthday Grammy J

We love you so much and
hope all your birthday wishes come true!

We enjoyed a nice evening at Rick's Boatyard celebrating my mom's birthday!!!

"Auntie" Sara was teaching Bella how to high five....and sneaking her bites of cake!!!

Bella was flirting big time with Chip! Aunt Rachel might have come competition!

He loves me!!!

Tim sent me this beautiful bouquet of flowers yesterday! I was completely surprised since in the 12 years we have been together he has never sent me flowers! He has brought me lots of flowers but never had them sent to me. I was so surprised that I missed the delivery man and had to pick them up today because I didn't even find the note until Tim said something about it.

He does love me!! Just kidding

He finally arrived home from his business trip around 8:30 pm tonight after long traffic delays!

We missed him at Grammy J's birthday celebration but glad he arrived home safely!

Bella Raye and Daddy are both looking forward to catching up tomorrow while mommy has to work!

Happy Anniversary...

Happy 4th Anniversary, Tim!!!

I was going through all our wonderful wedding pictures that Nate

took. We were so lucky that he captured every little detail of our day!

I wouldn't change a thing about our wedding it was just how we dreamed it would be!

We had it all, a wonderful ceremony surrounded by our family and friends and a huge celebration where we had tons of fun just as we wanted!

I would do it all over again in a heartbeat!

I love you!