The Parrillo Family

This weekend, we brought most of the family together at our temporary* house (Thanks, Marini's for the house!  We missed them, though!) to celebrate Frankie's second birthday.  The Beef, as I call him, turned two.  And since he's born so close to Halloween, Nat threw a "Monster Mash".  Complete with a huge inflatable Frankenstein out front. Decked out in their Halloween costumes, Frankie was Marshall From Paw Patrol, his sister SD was Ariel from the Little Mermaid and their cousin won the costume contest with the incredibly detailed and imaginative bespoke Dump Truck outfit that Uncle Bill created in his workshop. Everybody liked posing in front of "Frank" with Frank. What a happy boy on the day of his birthday party! The Monster theme extended to the birthday cake.  And some incredible Frankenstein cookies made by Grammy. And we all gathered around and sang the Happy Birthday song to the big guy.  He was so happy with all of hi...

These two have been through everything together.  And they'll be together for even more as they grow. Sisters.  From one of Nat's favorites that we watch on Christmas Tree Day: Two different faces, but in tight places We think and we act as one Those who've seen us Know that not a thing could come between us

Our boy is growing up.  And fast!  He's learning so much and is smart and mostly kind.  He's the most loving and caring of any of our kids (and they're all lovies!).  Every night, he refuses to go to bed without going around and giving everybody a hug and kiss.   "Sadie hug." "Ellie hug." "Daddy hug."  "Momma hug."   And as part of his hitting the big t-w-o, the place where he's sleeping has changed, too!  He's graduated out of his crib and now is sleeping in his 'big boy bed' every night.   This photo above is taken on his birthday morning where he celebrated with his sisters and had a big scrambled egg breakfast.  Happy Birthday, Beef.  Can't believe you're two! For comparison's sake, here's a post on Eloise's 2nd birthday .  And here's the post when SD turned two .  

Born July 21st, 2016, this is Elizabeth Bennet Parrillo.  We call her Lizzie. She's a blenheim Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and she is a total spaz.  Seriously.  We've had her for close to a month now and it took that long to get her to sit still for a photo. This (below) is what she normally looks like.  A whirl of activity: She's all puppy.  Has no interest in sitting on your lap just yet because she's way too interested in figuring things out around her.  She just doesn't sit still. But, she is a kind, gentle animal.  She's learned well how to live with our kids and she's *knock on wood* kinda getting the hang of going to the bathroom outside.  Not perfect, but what puppy is, amirite?!? All the kids are loving our Lizzie a lot and it has been nice to take her for walks (and not so nice when she wakes us up at 2 am wanting to go out) and what's just a little more chaos in our lives, right? I'm sure you'll get to see he...

Frankie and our little Lizzie are enjoying the final days of fall out in the yard together.