Goodbye to Phil Staiano

On Friday, January 16, 2009 my friends and I lost our friend Phil Staiano. He passed away from a pulmonary embolism after returning from a wonderful trip to Brazil.

I met Phil through my roommates from NYC. Heidi, Diana, and I were in the same training class and Heidi and Diana ended up marrying Mike and Brian Stapleton (yes now they are sisters-in-law!). One of Mike and Brian's best friends was Phil Staiano. Phil was always there for every special occasion in our lives and every night out. He was a wonderful person and he will be sorely missed.

I must thank Diana for sending me these pictures of Phil...the last one taken of us as a group was just this past November in Sanibel Island, Florida. I know that Rob was very disappointed he was not able to see Phil in Florida.

The funeral was a very difficult time for myself and for my friends. It is so awful to see your friends hurting like that and I just can't imagine if it were one of my closest friends....someone who I confided in and always relied upon to be there. The service was very nice as the priest made a statement about the fact that Phil had lived a wonderful life since there were so many people sitting in the church. He did live a fulfilled life and a good life. It is something that really makes you think about the way you live your own life and makes you question as to whether you have touched as many lives as he did.

My thoughts are with my friends as well as Phil's closest friends and family. He was loved by all who knew him and he will be forever missed. It will just never be the same even though we will move on.

In loving memory of Phil.

Thanksgiving 2008 and pre Christmas Parties

So to start out...I have to give Kristi a thank you so much for helping me out with my blog background. It looks much better don't you think? Now I feel I am getting better skilled at the background and much better at the pictures. Picasa is a dream, but it takes a little too long for me to figure things out sometimes (Kristi, I take back the bad things I said about Picasa if this post turns out great!). So I am almost up to date and if things go this smoothly from now on we should be at least blogging about the current month! I was off in November so we were home for Thanksgiving. We went to my brother Joel's house and once again my sister in law Sharon made a wonderful dinner. We usually bring side items so that one person isn't making the whole thing. I brought a corn casserole (so yummy-Jessica's recipe) and a pear/apple tart. Delicious. Reese had a wonderful time with her cousins Hudson, Sam, and Oliver. They sat at their own children's table!!! Reese also received an apron and hat from her friend Isabella (Isabella's mommy knew that Santa was bringing Reese a kitchen for Christmas) and that is a picture of her chef outfit. Also the picture on the rocking horse was taken when we were taking photos of Reese for her Christmas picture-just thought I would include it since it was so cute!

These pictures are from the Breakfast with Santa and the Christmas parade in Atlanta. Rob's office hosted a breakfast with Santa and then we had reserved seating to watch the parade. Reese does not mind seeing Santa, but she constantly reminds me that she is not going to sit on his lap-so funny! She loves waving at him and as you can see we convinced her to give him a high five. The little bear stamp was from the breakfast as well....she decided to get the airbrushing on her hand rather than her face. She loved the parade and we attended the parade with her friends Isabella and Caroline and their families. The photo of her shoes with the socks inside is there because everytime we walk in the door from the garage we sit down and take off our shoes by the desk. I always line up our shoes and the day of the parade Reese sat down and took off her socks and shoes, put the socks in the shoes as shown, and lined them up perfectly. Just thought it was pretty funny. The picture of the Christmas tree is at my parents house (yes the same day) and Reese had just finished putting the star on top of their tree....she was so proud of herself!!

These photos are from her MOMS Club Christmas Craft and her daycare Christmas party. At the MOMS club craft we made Christmas wrapping paper and you can see Reese sitting there painting her paper. Her friend Maggie showed all the kids how to paint their hands and then put their handprint on the paper. It was so cute and lots of fun. After the girls were done painting they decided to sit down at the piano in the room....the photo has her friends Maggie and Caroline in it. Her daycare Christmas party was lots of fun. I was able to attend as were many other parents that day. We had lots of goodies to eat, stockings to open (her teachers were very generous), songs to sing, and a book exchange. The book Reese received was "Are you my Mother?" by P.D. Eastman and she loves it. There are two photos of Reese with two of her daycare teachers who are so wonderful.
Also I enclosed another photo with Reese wearing my favorite black slingbacks...I told her when she is older she can wear them on dates too!

The Pink Pig-Nov 25, 2008

****Multiple Posts this time.....read all the way to Halloween!!!*****

The pink pig is apparently an Atlanta tradition (yes I did grow up in Atlanta and don't remember ever hearing about it until I was in college). Anyway it is a cute little train ride that comes the Macy's at Lenox Square for Christmas. The lines are out of this world-all for a pretty short ride, but the kids really love it. The first photo is Reese with friends Nathan and Caroline. The little scenes that you see are what we see on our little ride. Not sure what the story is! I love the picture of Reese sitting in the little train car with anticipation of the train moving-have I told you how much she loves trains????? I also love the photo of Reese, Nathan, Caroline, and Isabella at the little rope that is holding them back from boarding the train....can you feel the excitement?

Still updating-this is November

Just some photos taken in November 2008. I bought Reese the bathrobe at the Apparel Mart here in Atlanta and it quickly became an item she just had to wear. You can also see that she loves her heels....and I might add that she walks in them quite well. I went to Nordstrom today (Jan 6, 2009) with my mom and nana and we were in the shoe department and my little diva took off her little pedipeds and put on the beautiful red heels that my mom was trying on and did a walk as if she was on the runway. The sales associates thought it was the best thing they had seen....it was quite funny.

I just love the picture of Reese in her bathrobe with her thumb in her mouth....I love the way she is looking at the camera and I love the way her hair looks (yes I do sometimes pine for her silky hair!). The playground pictures just show what a joy she is to be around and how much she loves to be outside. There is the best playground in downtown ATL (just wish it weren't so far away) across from the Aquarium and we go there whenever we are in town!

Finally an update!!!

Ok so I am really just going to post some pictures with descriptions of where they were taken until I am caught up-I mean it is past Christmas and I am still blogging about Halloween. Talk about lazy!!! No really....things were really busy. Even though I was not working in October and November I think that I got less done on the computer. Guess it goes to show that you really do get more accomplished when you are busy-probably because you put your mind to the task at hand!

So Reese was a flamenco dancer for Halloween. We found her dress while visiting Nana and Grampa in Santa Barbara, CA. We were there during Fiesta week and we found this adorable dress that Reese dubbed her "dancing dress". She wore it many times before Halloween. She was also very excited to wear those shoes...real heels on the shoe (nothing like the high heels she walks around in at home!). She was able to trick or treat twice before the big night so she was a pro by the time Halloween rolled around. She really enjoyed being out in the dark and walking around with her pumpkin bucket....she really didn't care if she acquired much candy!