Maddy's baby shower

I forgot to put some pictures from my baby shower my work had for me. It was so fun! They decorated all these tables so beautifully. One of my friends there made all those frames. Another decorated with that piggy bank and then I got to open each pink bag that had a gift in it and of course I got that cute blanket and the bows she decorated with. Also note the cute cake this lady made. Nancy, my friend and co-worker put a lot of effort into this. She is so awesome. I get to work alongside her and I am very lucky to have her as a friend. The guy holding my baby is the great principal of our school. And the gal I am in the other photo is Jenny, an awesome teacher who has a little boy just about Dacian's age. We share lots of stories. All in all I had a wonderful time and I received lots of cute stuff and gift certificates for the things we need. Mom was invited too and she was impressed by how nice everything was and how many nice people I work with. I feel fortunate to work there and I thank everyone for all the gifts, cards and good wishes.
P.S Holly are you proud of me? I got great tips from Holly, one of my best friends, on how to make this collage. I finally got around to doing it. Thanks Holly.

Big snow in Seattle.

I love snow. We got so much of it in Seattle starting with last night so today we had a blast playing in the snow. Here's Dacian while doing his first snow angel. He asked about making one all morning. He is so fun and cute. He loved going down the hill on the sled. I have to get my mom's great pic she took. Mine turned out dark.

1 month old

When I was born mom was so happy I was growing well and she was surviving motherhood that she celebrated every month with a cake. I now started this same tradition. I did it with Dacian every single month. Here is her 1st month cake. It was very yummy.

Lavinia's blessing

On the 14th we had Lavinia blessed. It was such a special day and we were glad to have close family and friends come for her blessing. We had a great time eating yummies afterwards and just catching up. We love this little girl so much. She is doing great, she has started to smile and gurgle and is so alert. She is still a good baby for mommy and gets 6 hours of sleep at night before feeding. After that she sleeps some more. I hope she keeps this up since I have to go back to work after the holidays. :(

All tuckered out

Momma and baby right after birth.

Sweetness!

New family of four.

It's a GIRL!!!!

Born November 1oth at 3:03pm Lavinia Ariel Sanders has made her debut a day early. Yahoo! We are so excited she is here with us, healthy and cute. She was 8lbs and 20 inches long. We are all doing well, tired but in a good way. Dacian is doing OK all things considering and of course he wants to be a big brother and help his sister out in any way he can.

Sweet siblings.
A little embarrasing but cute nevertheless.

Baby come out!!!

OK, I am so ready to have this baby. I am big enough that at 38 weeks I probably have an 8 pounder in there. I am even embarrased to post pictures of myself. Not that I gained that much weight but the baby sure did. Anyway, everyone please pray for me that this baby comes soon and also advice on getting him or her here soon would be appreciated.

At the Zoo

The weekend Logan was in town we got to go to the Zoo. As you can see the cow is a hit. He would be such a good farmer. He loves animals and can't get enough of them. Also here he is as a little turtle. I just love this little boy. He always says he loves me too, plus he called me a "sweetie pie" the other day. It's so much fun to have him talking. I am getting a little sad for him to not be the only one anymore. I never thought I would feel that way and the purpose of number two was to have a friend for him but in a way I am a little sad he will most likely have a rough time and not feel like number 1 anymore.

Cousins

Here's all the Sanders' cousins. These guys are the cutest kids and soon they will grow a little older and will really get to play with each other.
Here they all are after our party for Logan (in red shirt) at our house. We had so much fun; the food was great and we got to play fun games. Dacian even got to blow the candles after Logan. Happy second b-day Logan. From left to right, Lily, Dacian, Alexis and Logan.

Good bye sweet grandmother

I am so sad my grandmother passed away unexpectedly the other day. It is so hard to be here and not in Romania with my extended family. I am glad my father did get to go. We got him on a flight three hours after we found out she had passed. It was quite a task, getting him ready and having the airport issue a ticket so fast enough for him to catch that one flight three hours later. I do feel God's hand in this and I really am thankful things worked out so well to get him there in time for the funeral. If he had missed this flight he would've missed the funeral. He got there at 2am and stayed by his mom to keep vigil the whole night. I can't imagine how hard that must be but I hope in a way that was healing at the same time.
I dreamed of her last night as she was on a hospital bed so happy to see my cousin and me. It was just good to talk to her and dream of her alive.
I have to admit I somewhat prepared myself for this day and mostly prepared mentally for when I would hear the news. Not because she was sick in any way but because she was old (85) and I was so far away and knew that I cannot just go visit her all the time or make the funeral just like it is now. That is one thing that killed me to live here. Even though I love this new home, I still miss my old and I feel like part of me, the Romanian me is coming to a close somehow. My parents now live here and now I don't have any more grandparents. And with my closest family here I still long to go back and feel "home" again. I don't think that will ever change. I just have to learn to live with that.
I will miss my grandmother dearly. She was the only one I had and she was such a sweetheart. I loved spending summers at her house in the coutryside, feeding the chickens and at times helping in the garden or help put the chopped wood away. I will miss her yummy food and the way she loved us all. I always admired what a hard worker she was. She lived a simple, beautiful life. I know after my grandfather died she was lonely and sad a lot and she has been saying she wanted to go for a long time now. I know she is in a better place now, reunited with grandpa. This one thought makes it more bearable.
Good bye sweet grandmother. Te iubesc!

We've been having fun

Here's what we have been doing lately. We enjoyed a few sunny days in Seattle. We went to a park in Bellevue where they have lots of farm animals, we went camping in Canada over Memorial day weekend and we went to a park by the Puget Sound in Seattle where they had the coolest salmon slide. Dacian had a blast going down it, it was pretty slippery and he could go down well.
There has been so much that we did lately, I don't know if I can catch up here anymore. I wish there was someone to show me how to post the writing with the right picture. I don't find it easy to navigate. Anyway, can't wait until summer to do more camping and playing. School will be out in a week and a half and then I have the summer off to relax, play and of course catch up with cleaning and other housewife chores that I ingnore way too often.

New baby on the way

Well, I guess it's time to write again. The reason for not posting anything for so long is because all my pictures are stored on my computer in the garage. Since it's so cold there I don't go in there very often and I just don't feel like posting anything without pictures. I keep saying I will catch up but it doesn't seem to happen. I need to move my Kodak printer/picture installer up to my room. Anyway, for all those who don't know we are execting baby #2.
We are very excited about it and hope all will go well and Dacian will have a healthy, happy baby brother or sister.
So long.

Copy-cat

This past weekend we went to Canada to spend time with Charlotte, mother in law. We had a really good time even though it was so short. Dacian loved it there, he saw lots of wild horses, cows and lots of snow. He loves it. He also likes puddles, I am sure no different than other kids. When we were getting ready to leave, I come out of the house and I see him play in a muddy puddle. His shoes were so dirty. He saw me and he knew he was in trouble and then he told me "sit down!" (referring to himself) and sat down in the dirt. I guess I tell him "sit down" a lot when I am mad at him. Sweet little boy wanted to punish himself and all he did is make mommy even more mad. Not really, I laughed so hard. He is so cute, I love this age.

Toddler bed

Today we changed Dacian's bed to a toddler bed. I am praying he won't fall out or that he won't start waking up in the middle of the night and knock at his door. I am having a really hard time putting him to bed, I just need to let him cry it out again. He doesn't even say a thing with Shane. He goes down for him within minute while with me it takes him so long. We cuddle, read, then he starts to poke me or pull on my hair etc. I feel drained. It's hard to be a mom or so I think today when I feel sleep deprived since I went to bed so late last night.

In the past month we got a little snow and we had so much fun. Dacian wanted to eat up all the snow and the next day when it stopped snowing he kept asking to go out and play in the snow. Too bad it was almost gone. This week it's predicted that we will get more snow, I hope it will and lots so I can stay home a day or two. :)

This picture is taken at the zoo. Dacian is looking at the penguins. It was such a fun day and it was great to be together for a little while.

It's been a while since I posted anything so I suppose it's time. I am not sure if I can actually keep this blog, I just don't have that much time and when I do I avoid my computer since I am on it at work all day. Thanksgiving was great and Christmas and New Year came and went so fast. We had a great time with family and we wish you all a Happy New Year! May you have peace, joy and happiness always.