Northwestern Fans!

Yes, it is getting close to "that time of year" again: Football season.

This time, no more of that silly U of I clothing: Gabby and I (Daddy) are sporting our purple in support of the Wildcats. NU's first game is Saturday, September 5th: 2 weeks!

Maybe we will go see a game this year: only an hour or so from our new house. :)

Go Cats!

Gabby remembering NU's 9-win season last year

Gabby, say: "Towson, who?!"

Play Date

At the end of May, on the weekend, Kevin, Gabriella, my father, and I were in Peoria to get things for our new house in Bolingbrook. However, we stopped by to visit my friend, Stephanie, and her family for the last time before we left to Bolingbrook. Gabriella was with her buddy Skye and played with a few toys. These girls were so cute! Sometimes, they went in opposite directions. Stephanie and I went to get our girls and wondered where they were going. By the way, we had a good time and were glad to find a good time to see them before who knows when we will see them again after settling in our new house.

Remodeling....

On Wednesday, May 20th, we bought a new house in Bolingbrook, officially closing that day. My father was with me and Gabriella while we met with the lawyer, realtor, and other people to sign and close on our house. Kevin was in San Diego, CA working. However, once it was all over, Kevin and I were so happy and were so excited to have our new house. Whooo Hooo!! Afterwards, our realtor, John Budz, my father, Gabriella, and I went out for lunch to celebrate for a short time. After we ate lunch, I went to Uncle Tim's to drop off Gabriella and the realtor dropped off dad at my house.

On that same day after lunch, Dad and I started do some remodeling in our house such as painting, tiling, wood flooring, and so on!! We worked our butt off on these for almost two whole weeks. How exhausted we were, especially Dad, since he did the most! He did way beyond awesome work for us. Kevin and I thank you, Dad, for all the extreme work you have done. We are so lucky to have you in our life! Thank you and Love you, Dad!! Also, for Uncle Tim, I thank him for watching Gabriella the whole weeks whenever I needed him to watch Gabby while I worked with dad on my house. It saved my time!! Uncle Tim, we are so lucky to have you living close to us! We thank and love you!

One of the weekends, other families stopped by to check out the house and had errands to do for us. It was nice having them around and to see our house for the first time. While Uncle Time wasn't able to watch Gabby on the weekend, Babcia Anna, Aunt Danuta, and cousin Tomasz were taking care of her. That included Aunt Danuta's friend Deidra. Glad it worked out so that Gabriella was not in our way while we worked on the house.

One of these weekends, Kevin, Dad, Gabriella, and I went to Peoria to get our stuff out of my parents' basement and loaded them in the trailer connected to Dad's van. My parents' neighbor loaned us his trailer to load stuff in it. Thanks to the neighbor! The next morning, we all went back to Bolingbrook and unloaded stuff in the third garage. We went back to work in house to do a few things. After a few days, it was all done. Thank God it was over! Whew.. Dad went back to Peoria. He was looking forward to playing golf. He definitely needed to enjoy his time with golf. While Dad drove back to Peoria, Kevin and I were excited and discussed where the furniture and stuff would go. Most of the time, I cleaned the house while Daddy (Kevin) watched Gabriella. We slowly moved our furniture and unpacked our boxes. It took a little time to do all of this stuff. Other than that, we were so happy!

Dad put tiles in kitchen.

Mom & Aunt Danuta chatted.

Uncle Jim enjoyed watching dad.

Tomasz helped Uncle Kevin.


Aint Danuta cute while pregnant? YEA!

1st B-Day Party

On Wednesday, May 6th, Gabriella turned one year old. On that day, we had a little celebration because everybody was at work. So, Kevin and I gave her a big party on Saturday, May 9th with all of the Morge/Dynda/Wilson families. Some of families weren't able to come, but they were in our heart. At the party, Gabriella had a blast with her cousins and ran around. We had pizza and cakes to eat. Before we ate cakes, we sang "Happy Birthday" to Gabriella and gave her a small cake with one candle. Of course, she wasn't able to blow it out, but we all helped her blowing the candle. Afterwards, we were looking forward to see how she did with cake: in our imagination she would eat all over the cake on her face as messy and ate like a pig. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. Once she saw the cake, she didn't want to do anything with it...not even touch one tiny bit of frosting to taste it. She wailed and wanted to get out of this stuff. I as mom put frosting on my fingertip and tried to feed her. She refused to eat it. Oh well.. the fun is over. She hated that sticky frosting. icky... Later in a while, Gabriella had all the gifts to open. At first, she didn't understand with all of these gifts, but Kevin (Daddy) helped her open the gifts. Also, Gabriella's cousins helped too. All of these kids were excited and wanted to know what it was inside. How fun! Gabriella had a blast. We all want to tell all the families who came and weren't able to come, thank you for all the wonderful gifts. Sorry if we didn't send out thank yous, as it was late! Forgive us!

Before her birthday party, she had one-year-old doctor check up. She hated and still hates the doctors visits. However, doctor said that she was in fantastic condition and was now able to drink whole milk. I stopped breastfeeding her. Yay!!!! By the way, she was 30 in. height (80%), 20 lb. 14 oz (50%), and 46.5 cm head (75%). Of course, she received two shots. She had 8 total of teeth (4 of each). As of one year old, she walks skillfully, runs a little (like sprint walk), talks nonstop, and continues to eat well. She loves the books for us to read. She has learned some sign languages. It was so cute to see her signing with her little hands!

Beautiful Day....

On the first week of May, it was so beautiful and cool outside in Peoria, Illinois. Dzia Dzia and Babcia took Gabriella out for a walk with Ampara (dog). Gabriella enjoyed riding the wagon instead of using stroller.

The other day, it was also a beautiful day. Gabriella was sitting on chair right next to her cousin Tomasz on the deck of grandparents' house. They enjoyed sitting in these small chairs with rainbow umbrella above them.

Meghan's Baby Shower

On Sunday, April 3rd, Gabriella and I were invited for my sister-in-law Meghan's baby shower. The night before, Kevin, Gabriella, and I flew in Chicago from CA. We had a good time at the baby shower and stayed for a short time. We drove back home to Peoria during Gabby's nap in the afternoon. We all were so exhausted and had a long week. Meghan, thanks for the invitation!

San Diego, CA

On Thursday, April 23, Gabriella and I flew to San Diego, CA for a week to visit Daddy (Kevin) where he worked on his project. Upon our arrival, we were excited to see Daddy and how much we missed him. After arriving at the hotel, I unpacked and organized our room with Dad. The next few days, Gabriella was sick with cold and little fever on and off. Poor our baby!! One morning, Gabby had a terrible cough and had difficulty breathing, so we took her to the emergency room. She had congestion, cough, and cold. A nurse came to clean out her nose due to the congestion and gave her a steroid liquid to release her throat to breath through. She got better the next two days. Whew.... During her sickness, she manged to have fun with us. What a strong girl!

During the weekend, Dan (Kevin's brother) and his family drove all the way down to meet us at the San Diego Zoo from north of L.A. We were thrilled to meet them and hadn't seen them for a long time, since Christmas 2008. It was our first time in San Diego Zoo. Unbelievable!! WHAT A HUGE ZOO!! We walked all over and loved to see these animals! We all had a fantastic time!

The next day, we went out for swimming in the hotel pool to relax and chill out before Dan and his family went back home. It was wonderful seeing them again, and we're looking forward to seeing them again someday soon.

Before we all left back home in Illinois, we went out for shopping, walking, swimming, out to eat, etc. We had a good time in San Diego, CA.