Nutshell.

The Happy Couple

Russell and I met while I was working one day at Hooters. We developed a great friendship that we had for over a year before we went out on our first date, on August 20, 2007. After that night, we spent every minute of our time together. We fell in love very quickly and while vacationing in Colorado with some friends, Russell asked me to marry him. It was October 12, 2007, and on that same vacation we found out we were expecting our first child. We were overjoyed.

This is Russell and I on our second date.

I said "YES!"

The beautiful ring he gave me.

Russ went out and bought a onesie when we found out!!

Our Home.

We lived in Russell's log cabin out in the woods for a few months, but do to renovations being done (and no toilets at one point) we decided it would be better to start staying at my parents house. We lived their for the first couple months of my pregnancy, while I was really sick which was good because while Russell was working on the cabin everyday my mom was able to help me. On our first Valentines day, Russell took me to dinner at Bonefish Grill and for 'dessert' I was handed a plate with a set of shiny new keys on it. Keys that were for our very first home together. We moved in the next day.

The Pets

Into our home we also brought our 'kids'. My four cats and his Dog. They started fighting like brothers and sisters from the very first day, and nothing has changed.

Oswald Bearpaw DiPesa, Russell's English Bulldog that he absolutely adores...

Bo is the fatty on the left, and Frannie is his girlfriend on the right. Where you find one, you find the other. Always snuggled together too!

This is Queen Elizabeth, and she fits her name perfectly!

And this little nutcase is Helen. She is named after Helen Keller because yes, she is deaf.

This past December we adopted two more little critters to play with, two hairless guinea pigs. Also known as skinny pigs. Butters is mine, he is the cute one with brown ears. Scrote is Russell's, he is albino and they are both getting huge now. These are their baby pictures that we picked them out from on the website.

Brooke Alyson DiPesa
On June 15, 2008, after 32 long hours of labor, and 2 1/2 hours of pushing, we welcomed our amazingly perfect beautiful baby girl, Brooke Alyson DiPesa into our lives. She has been nothing but wonderful since the day she was born, and we are so blessed to have such a great daughter.

Russell and I were married on November 22, 2008. The wedding was perfect and everyone who came had a great time. It was an amazing day, and I married the most amazing man. It was a great feeling to become an official family, and to have the same last name as Russell and Brooke.

Brooke is now 21 months old, almost two years old and we can't believe how fast the time has gone by. She runs around the house like crazy, and is into absolutely everything. She is now talking up a storm, and can make the noise of any animal you could think to ask her. She is incredibly smart, and always wants to be read too. Books are her favorite 'toys'. She knows and can say all of her body parts, her name, all sorts of animals, every character on Sesame Street. You can have actual small conversations with her and she is doing so well with putting two and three words together now. She tells you when she wants to eat, and when she has to 'pee pee' and she is doing so well on her potty already. We just have to work on getting her to 'poops' on the potty! She sleeps in her big girl room in her toddler bed, and she has been sleeping all through the night since she was 8 weeks old. Elmo and Barney are her favorite characters and she loves to dance around the living room to their singing. When the phone rings she says 'phone, meme!!' because she always thinks my mother (Grammy) is calling to talk to her. She loves all of our animals and tries to ride Oswald like he is a horse. There are so many wonderful things to say about her that I could go on forever, which is why I have created this blog, so that I can share and update you on her progress, and everything that is going on in our little family, that will be growing by one in just a few weeks!!

We are expecting the arrival of Bella Andréa DiPesa in just over 4 weeks. A lot of people seem to think that she will be coming earlier than that, so we will just have to wait and see! (The hospital bags are all packed and ready to go just in case!) We are so excited to be having another little angel running around our house. I am so excited for Brooke to have a baby sister and I have no doubt that Brooke will be an amazing big sister. She gives my belly kisses everyday and she rubs my tummy and says 'baby!' She even tried to put her baby dolls blanket over my tummy to keep the baby warm. It's going to be a big change having two kids, but I can not wait to take on the challenge. Who needs sleep anyways, right?

So, now that we are all caught up I can't wait to share exciting news and pictures with you on here so that you can watch our girls grow up with us.