The Parrillo Family

Frankie, Eloise and SD pose in front of our mostly done house. Oh, happy day!  We have sod installed at our #NewOldFarmhouse.   This is just after we have the inside MOSTLY finished .  The kids couldn't help themselves and wanted to pose for a photo in *their* yard.  After being restricted on where they can walk on the jobsite due to the enormous amount of mud, they can now run free in the front and backyard!   Do you think Eloise was excited?

The floors are done!  You can see that the counters aren't in yet.  That didn't stop the three kids from doing some ballroom dancing in the kitchen. You'll remember that we bought this house/lot back in July of last year .  In March, the siding was done .  Less than one year later and we're *almost* done.  Looking for more real-time updates?   Follow along with Natalie on @NewOldFarmhouse on Instagram . Sadie loves giving a tour.  Here she is showing off the stairs going up. And in the closet: And she is taking in the window seats in *her* own bedroom! She can't wait to move in!

Back in November of 2016, we posted about the impending construction of our new house .  Lots of things have taken place between now and then.  It has been three and a half months since we got underway.  Starting with the demolition of the old house on our lot before Christmas.  And, today? Check out the photo below.  Hard to believe, but we have something that looks like a house!  At least on the outside... We're on schedule for an early summer 'move in' date and our builder has been great about moving as fast as they can. Here's a few family photos below showing some of the progress since we last checked. Frankie was excited to watch the 'digger trucks' tear down the old house and dig the hole for the foundation. The framing went up super fast.  Here's SD dancing in 'her room'.  She was so excited. Noonie and Papa came by to check out the framing. That look?  That's relief.  And excitement. Nat and Franki...

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...

Close to the end of July, the girls were able to spend a day with their cousin before she shipped back off to Switzerland for another year of school at the International School with her family.   In June, we took a family trip and were able to spend some time with our family in their house in Switzerland (which I haven't posted photos of quite yet), but following that trip, my Sister and her family came home to Elmhurst for almost a month this summer.  And they got to see all their friends and family.  Including us! The last day before they went back to Europe, the girls took their cousin on a little adventure where they showed her around a few places in Downers Grove including Everyday is a Sundae in the photo above.  Who doesn't like a good summer ice cream cone? And then they took her by our lot where we're building our house - that you can see the in the backyard below: These girls were so, so close when we all lived down the block and see...

Yep!  For those of you who know what we've been through the past year and a half, you can - like we have - finally breath.  At the end of June, right before we went on our European Adventure, we closed on a house in Downers Grove, Illinois. And...I think we have to use the word 'house' lightly, because what we've really bought is a lot with a house on it currently.  We're working with a builder to design a plan to build a new old farmhouse on the property and demo the existing structure.  More on that soon, but we're chronicling our new old house journey on our new farmhouse blog . But, back to the lot.  Here's a photo that Natalie captured of Eloise right after the closing where she has the keys in hand.   She was, umm, a bit excited.  This whole process where we find a house, sign a deal, have said deal fall apart (3 times!!!!!) has been tough on Nat and me, but I know it has been super tough on the girls.  They haven't had a real hom...

As I posted yesterday, we celebrated Mother's Day with *most* of our family over the weekend .  It was great and I'm glad we got to pamper Nat and the other Mom's with a day of activities. But as I mentioned, the girls' cousins, who are living in Switzerland, weren't there.  Aunt Kiki is SD's Godmother and to mark the occasion and as a very.small.token of our thanks for having us stay in their house, Nat thought it would be a good idea to plant a perennial in their yard. And that's what Sadie did!  Here she is digging up the hole (with an assist from her brother Frankie!), pushing the dirt aside and then putting the plant in the ground.   Sadie was so proud of herself!  She's promised to tend to it all summer and keep it watered so it will survive this first year. We put it in a pretty prime spot, so it should get some good sun. Hopefully, it will come back year after year and Aunt Kiki will remember the time that her Goddaughter Sadie lived...

A week ago Saturday, we said a bittersweet goodbye to our lovely house in Elmhurst.  We sold it to a neighbor and have moved out.    Natalie summed it up for me when she wrote: A bittersweet goodbye to the home that has kept us warm, dry, safe and happy. It was the perfect place to start our little family. Can you love a house? I sure do. Thank you, little house. There are tons of special parts of the house, but one of the most endearing parts is upstairs. Up in the nursery is a tree that Nat painted on the wall.  She made a special effort to go back in one last time and take a photo with the kids in front of the tree.  Natalie said it best when she posted: I painted this tree on our nursery wall when I was pregnant with Eloise. I'm not an artist, but I loved making it for her and her future siblings. Every time I thought about selling our house, I considered the inevitability of the future owner painting over this tree. I needed one last photo. They ...