Baltic Cruise

So we recently took our last big European vacation. We're leaving Sicily in the next few months so we decided to go out with a bang and we did a Baltic Cruise! It was our first time travelling as a family of four and we're glad to report that it was a successful trip. Bella is already a seasoned traveler so we weren't too worried about her. But it was our first time going anywhere with Gabby. She was such a trooper though! The only real issue we had was that she was exhausted everyday by dinnertime. So, Brian and i would take turns holding her, taking her out of the restaurant to distract her, and pretty much doing anything else we could just to make it through dinner. Other than that, we enjoyed "cruising" so much that we've already started looking into doing a Disney cruise (once Gabby is old enough to enjoy it, of course :)

We had a chance to visit some really amazing and beautiful cities on our cruise. We were so worried about the weather - the forecast had called for temperatures to be in the high 50's to low 60's and raining at pretty much every port. We were so happy that the only day it actually rained was the day we departed and then it was sunny and fairly warm the rest of the time! The cruise left out of Kiel, Germany and the ports of call were:

Stockholm, Sweden
Tallinn, Estonia
St. Petersburg, Russia
Copenhagen, Denmark

All of the cities were great but our favorite was Copenhagen. It's a very lively and modern city yet it still has a lot of history and charm. It's also not too big and not too small, so we felt like we did a lot in the few hours that we were there. We even had a chance to visit an amusement park (Tivoli Gardens). Stockholm and St. Petersburg were also beautiful but they are so big that it was hard to see everything we wanted to see during the time we were there. I guess this just means that we'll have to do another Baltic cruise sometime in the future :)

Anyway, here are just a few of the pictures from our cruise. Enjoy!

Bella's 3rd birthday

We celebrated Bella's 3rd birthday with a Dora themed party and invited a few of her little friends over for some pizza and pasta, cupcakes and a couple of games. They loved playing pin the tail on Swiper, taking swings at the Dora pinata, but the hit of the party was Bella's new ride - a hot pink Barbie Escalade that was bought by both sets of grandparents and her aunts and uncles :) She is loving it but definitely needs a few more driving lessons ;) Thank you for spoiling our daughter. Here are a few pictures from her birthday:

Easter and Artichoke Festival in Niscemi

Here are some pictures from our first Easter with Gabby and our first Artichoke Festival. We had a great Easter dinner with our Mineo friends at our favorite agriturismo, Borgo Antico. And we loved tasting all the different artichoke dishes at our first artichoke festival. Who knew artichokes could be cooked so many different ways and be so delicious ?!?!?! Enjoy the pics:

The best sound in the world...

is Gabby's laugh :) Check her out cracking up as Bella and Papi high five each other:



She was laughing so hard, she gave herself the hiccups :)

The last few months

Hey there! Sorry we've been neglecting our blog lately. Being the parents of a toddler and an almost 3 month old doesn't leave us time to sleep, let alone update our blog on a regular basis. Time seems to be flying by these days. Bella turns 3 next month and Gabby will be 3 months on the 29th of this month. Can you believe it, she's almost 3 months?!?!? She is growing too fast. At her 2 month appointment, she had already grown an inch and a half and weighed in at almost 13 lbs. We are enjoying her so much and Bella is loving being a big sister. She is so helpful with Gabby and loves to kiss and hug her. As for us, we only have a few more months left here in Sicily. Brian has received verbal orders to Norfolk and we should be leaving sometime between October and December. It will be so nice to be closer to our family and friends! We are trying to enjoy our last few months here and have already started planning our next trip to Northern Italy (hopefully for sometime in May :) In the meantime, here are some pictures from the last few months (our parents visits, Gabby's first picnic, and a trip to Funny Island - it's like Chuck E Cheese, but way better!). Enjoy!

The newest addition to our family...

Gabriella Alexis was born on December 29th at 3:04 pm. She weighed 7 lbs. 13 ozs. and was 20 and 1/4 inches long. She is absolutely gorgeous and we are so happy she's finally here!

For those of you who don't know, she was almost a week late (my original due date was Christmas Eve). We are so happy she waited to come until after Christmas because next year, not only will we be celebrating her 1st birthday on Dec. 29th, but we'll also be celebrating my sister's 30th birthday!

I was induced early Tuesday morning and by the time she was born, the total labor and delivery process only took 6 hours!! I was in shock and couldn't believe it. Brian couldn't believe it either (he missed Bella's birth by 10 hours). I guess it's true what they say - the second one is so much easier and faster :)

Here are a few pictures from the hospital and our first time coming home:

Last vacation as a 3 person family

We just got back from our family vacation a little over a week ago, and finally got a chance to post a "few" of our pictures from the entire trip. There's actually 105 pictures of the various sights and scenes we got to experience while in London, Amsterdam, Belgium (Brussels & Bruges), and Paris. These are just a fraction of the photos we took with our new camera. More stories are to come from the individual places we saw, but for now, enjoy the pics!