The missing Christmas card..

We didn't send out Christmas cards this year. If we had, this probably would have been our picture. Connor is very cooperative for pictures lately and loves posing with Harris.

It shouldn't surprise anyone that we didn't get around to doing Christmas cards since we never even mailed out Harris' birth announcements. Kind of strange since I'm obsessed with taking pictures AND we had professional newborn shots done of our little Baby Bob.

Here are a few pics from Christmas. There are many, many pictures but these are just a few highlights.

Harris got a homemade hat from Aunt Beky and I took a million pictures of him wearing it. We love homemade!

Speaking of homemade, here's Har-Bar in an elf hat I made for Connor's first Christmas. Harris actually ripped a little paper off of his presents but he still needed some help.

We spent Christmas Eve at Mommom and Poppop's for dinner (and massive amounts of legos!) and then went to Mass. Poppop, Mike, Connor, and Harris all fell asleep during the 10 PM service! Mommom and I managed to stay awake!

Christmas day we had breakfast at our house with Uncle Mark and Whitney and then headed to Memom and Dada's. Some illnesses tried to bring down our Christmas spirits but we were blessed with a lot of answered prayers.

The day after Christmas Aunt Beky and Uncle Dan joined us at Mommom and Poppop's. Connor opened his new 'Connor sized' guitar and started strumming immediately! 'Cowboy songs' are his favorite, of course!

We read the Christmas Story to Connor often and make sure he knows the real reason for the holiday. At one point he said to me, 'Mommy, I know it's about Jesus but I really like presents!' We explained to him that Jesus is the best present and we celebrate him by sharing gifts with others. I'm not sure if he understands completly yet, but hopefully we are building a good foundation for him and Harris.

We hope that your Christmas was blessed!

OCNJ 2009

Well, we've been back from OC for almost a month now so it's about time I posted pics! We had a great time with the family. For the first 2 days, Memom & Dada, their 4 children & their spouses and the 4.5 grandkids were all there together. (4.5 grandkids because one is still being baked!) Connor and Jake spent almost every second they were in the house together doing something like this:

Harris spent his beach time sleeping - sometimes in a tent sometimes being held.

Once Connor got in the water, he never wanted to leave! Our little fish!

This picture is just for fun! Some grown up Cianciulli boys sharing a bathroom!

More beach!

Connor and Jake watched snuggled up with a movie on our first night at the beach.

Lots of yellow in this picture:

The knucklehead and Uncle Turt

Uncle Christopher figured out pretty quickly that Baby Bob Harris stops crying when he can be belly-to-belly!

Connor's first Crit July 11, 2009

After lots of practicing riding, Connor participated in his first Crit this month. The IronHill Criterium in West Chester has a childrens heat between the amateurs and the pros. Connor rode his 'Caillou' bike (it looks like Caillou's) right up Gay Street! Here he is putting in a few warm-up laps.

After we met up with Memom & Dada, it was time for Connor to line up and get ready....Then he was off!

As he crossed the finish line, he was handed a soft pretzel and a medal. The pretzel was much more exciting to him then the medal! But check out that rider number!

With a mouth full of pretzel, Connor showed off his medal. And of course he offered to share his pretzel with everyone. Who knows, maybe in a few years he'll be riding down the shore with us!

Ocean City here we come...

Ocean City is one of our favorite places to go as a family. Click 2007 and 2008 to see pics from past years. The Howe Family trip this year has been canceled since we will all be going away for Beky's wedding. The Cianciulli Family has decided to all go to OC together this year and we can't wait for all of the memories we will make with Memom and Dada! In the meantime, Mike got a few free nights at the Borgata in AC, so we decided to stay in AC and spend our days in OC! We had a wonderful time!

Connor and I both showed off our bellies to the Atlantic! That pink shirt no longer fits over my belly! Connor's shirt still fits despite claiming to have five babies in his belly! This picture was taken at 29 wks pg.

Here's Connor having some fun in the hotel. I think next time we will try to get a suite...Connor's naptimes were not easy when we were all in the same room. We obviously did not wear him out as much as we did in Disney!

Connor & Mike went on rides in Wonderland. When we go with the family, I'll be able to ride also! Mike will have to sit-out with the new baby!

Boardwalk fun!

Connor was really into the ATVs on the boardwalk & a nice policeman offered to let Connor sit on the ATV. At first Connor said 'no, thank you' but then he couldn't resist any longer!


We've got a few favorites on the boardwalk (not to mention the food!). One of our favorites is the helicopter w/ 2 gorillas singing great beach songs! Here's the boys watching the gorillas! Sometimes we dance, too!

A very nice man offered to take our picture. Connor didn't seem to like this - I think he was wondering why a stranger was allowed to touch his Mama's camera!

There are always characters on the boardwalk! This time we saw Mr. Peanut, Shriver's Taffy, and the Stewart's Bear.

'What those seagulls doing?'

One of the most exciting parts of our beach trip was watching seagulls eat something other than french fries! We didn't see this one take the crab from the water but we watched him fly with it and drop it up by the boardwalk. The crab started digging into the sand so the seagul flipped it over so it couldn't escape.

We went up pretty close to the crab and the seagulls yelled at us to back off!

Connor loved watching the seagulls as they stood guard over the crab.

Finally the seagulls were brave enough to go back over to the crab. Our best guess is that they waited for the little claws to stop grabbing. Doesn't it look like the the seagulls are discussing their lunch!?

After watching the seagulls with their lunch, Connor decided it was his mission to make sure no seagulls were on the boardwalk for the rest of the weekend!