Happy Birthday Anna!!

Today my little girl turned two, and she couldn't have been more excited that it was her birthday. We sang Happy Birthday at least three times this morning, by request of Annalise, and this was before we even got to church. Needless to say, she loves birthdays. But it turns out that I also love birthdays, so I made here a princess cake, (that we are actually saving for tomorrow), it turned out pretty cute.

Annalise has been talking about a birthday cake for weeks now, so I hope she is not dissapointed tomorrow when she eats it, since all it really is.....is cake.

Well enough about cake.

Annalise has grown up so fast over the last couple of years, and her independence never ceases to amaze me!

Here she is......

2 Weeks old~

6 Months~

1 Year~

18 Months~

2 Years~

Happy Birthday Annalise!

Our new house!!

So I have been meaning to put up pictures of our new place, but every time I think about I also think.....well I will wait until I am all the way unpacked, or the house is really clean. But we all know that won't happen any time soon. So here are some pictures of our new place for those of you who have been asking, sorry they are not very good pictures, but they are pictures. And there is also a little video tour if you have nothing else better to do!Enjoy!

Front Room:

Kitchen:

Back Patio:

Basement:

Here is the video. It is a little long, and Annalise is screaming in the background,.....welcome to my life!

No seven year itch....

As of yesterday Kevin and I have been married for seven years, and it has gone so fast!

(I tried to find a wedding picture but I couldn't find one....and some of you know the story behind that, so I had to settle for this pic)

We met almost 11 years ago and spent a few years as friends and the last seven as husband and wife, and I wouldn't change a thing! Annalise came a long two years ago to make our family more complete and I can't wait for more kids to fill our home with excitement (as long as they are not born as independent two year olds.)

Since we just recently moved we didn't have much time to celebrate, but we were able to spend the evening in German Village, a cute little area on the south side of columbus, where we looked through a maze of books and ate some delicious cheesecake. It is nice to just spend time with one another while Kevin has free time until school starts. Yay for anniversaries!

Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas!

Well, the time has come.....we officially live in Columbus, Ohio. We moved in two weeks ago and our house is still full of boxes and disorganization, but I do have a good excuse........

Two days after we moved into our new house we went on vacation to Las Vegas with all of my family, which included my siblings and their families and my parents. It was so great to see them and I already miss them again......I can't wait until next year. We got to stay in an awesome house, it had seven bedrooms, a pool and a volleyball court and a fun game room. We have so many pictures I don't even know where to begin, so here is a link to all of them since I can't decide. Honestly all the good pictures that were taken of us were taken by everyone else's camera, so they will come some time in the future. We did get to take some family pics so here is the whole fam: (And for those of you that are wondering, there are five siblings, five spouses, two grandparents and six and half grandkids)

A few fun things our family did while we were there .......

• a scavenger hunt on the strip
• late night poker games
• made 20 baby blankets (in one day) for St. Christophers (the hospital where Annalise had her surgery)
• 18 holes of golf under the blazing hot sun
• took family pictures the same day
• a lot of swimming at 5 am since Annalise never really adjusted to the time change
• ate a lot of good food in really good company

It is always refreshing to see my family.......and even more relaxing to go back home, but that was really the strange part. I kept on thinking I was going back home to Philly, but I wasn't. I was tempted to hop on the plane to philly in the airport, but I decided it would make more sense to fly back to where all of my stuff was just moved to, back to Columbus. I am really having a hard time adjusting to being in a new place, and I miss all of my friends sooooo much! I know that in time I will get used to it. However, today I did enjoy myself shopping. I went to a garage sale and got tons of stuff for twenty bucks, and then I went to the farmers market down the street from there and got some amazing tomatoes, peaches and corn, so there are many positive things. As soon as I get my house organized I am going to take pictures of our new place for everyone to see it, but if you want to see it in person all you have to do is come to Columbus.....I know it sounds tempting!

PS~ Here are some cute pics of Annalise and her girl cousins in the cute tutu's that Ellie made....so cute!

Supplies!!!.......I mean Surprise!!

The countdown is sadly over......only one day until we will be all packed up and on our way to Columbus. Today I found a good surprise in a box in the kitchen, and I thought I would share it with you:

I want to thank everyone for all your love and support as we are moving, we couldn't do it without you!

Packing, packing.....moving, moving

So it is only one week away!!

We are moving in about a week and it seems like all I can think about is how much I need to get done. Ahhh!

There are many things that I am going to miss when we move:

All of our awesome friends

being in the young women program at church

pretzels (philly soft pretzels that is)

having an income

seeing my husband on a normal schedule

knowing where I am going

being close to the shore

the playgrounds and parks around Philly

having a job that I love

There are so many things I can't even think of them.........yep, I am going blank.

Most of all I am just going to miss all the people that I have become close to in the last four years, especially all of our friends at church! I am not very good at saying goodbye, but I hope all my philly friends know I am going to miss you sooooo much!

However we have much to look forward to in our move to Ohio. First of all I am excited for our new house. We are renting a townhouse which will be an upgrade for us. I will have my own front door, a washer and dryer that is not down two flights of stairs and does not require quarters, a patio, and a room for Annalise to play in! Here is a picture of the front of or new place...

So for anyone who wants to party before we move I am totally up for hanging out and enjoying our last week here, and a note for Columbus..........I hope you are ready for The Lawrence Family!

The shore....and more.....

Time is going so fast, I can't believe it. Only three weeks until we move, and my house doesn't look ready at all.......oh well.

We had a lovely week celebrating the fourth of July. Last weekend at Penns Landing there was the "Taste of Philadelphia" that we attended. It was all wonderfu food, but Annalise's favorite part was the ice cream cone at the end. We also got to go to Smith Memorial Playground.

Kevin was off on Friday (the 3rd),which was really nice. I am sure he loved having a three day weekend because it is such a rare occurrence. We just hung out most of Friday and then that afternoon we had our last get together with the Nelsons, so sad :(

We had a good old american BBQ and swimming party, it was a nice relaxing evening.

On Saturday we went to the shore and met Kevins sister Amy there. We went to Long Branch Beach for the first time, and it was great! We usually go to Belmar, but I was looking for fireworks and fun things for Annalise to do, so it was perfect.

The fireworks were awesome, because they were shooting them off just a few feet from us, so we got to lay on the beach and watch them right above us. Annalise was really scared when they first started going off, the sound and how close they were, she was scared to death. But then I started naming all the colors of the fireworks and asked if she could help me, and for the rest of the show she was naming every color she could see, she was so cute. It was such a fun day, and I am going to miss not having the beach so close to us.