Sydney laughing

Here is a little video of Sydney laughing in the tub. I think that a baby's laugh is the most adorable sound in the world.

Sydney's birth announcement

To give you a little background, John has been really into photography ever since Sage was born. We got a really nice camera around then and he loves trying new things with it. We did a little photo shoot in our living room for this birth announcement. Those are real rose petals even though they look fake. John did the picture editing himself and I think he did an amazing job. We were really happy with the way it turned out. I hope y'all like it!

Life with two kids

How cute are they together! I was so excited for them to wear these little sister, big sister shirts. I'm a little nuts about dressing them. :)


Here is the first of many family pictures.


My mom came with us to the park to take these pictures the day before she went back to Texas. Didn't this one turn out nice?


So far my dad has gotten her to smile the biggest in a picture!


Here is Sydney Raelyn Pitcavage the day of her baby blessing, September 19, 2010. My mom made this beautiful blessing dress and both Sage and Sydney have worn it.

Hi everyone! It has taken me way too long to post something new. Life with two kids is a lot more work. I've learned that I have to plan for twice as long to leave the house with them and twice as long to go shopping or anywhere with them. It's weird to think about those days when I would go to a store alone. I've come a long way since Sydney was born. I was terrified to go anywhere with the two of them for a while but now I'm managing to get out and go places during the day. Sydney is such a sweet little thing. She loves to smile and laugh. She has the most adorable laugh. Even her cry is cute. (incessant screaming not so cute) Now that we have her I can't imagine life without her. Sage is so sweet with her. The first month or so Sage would hit Sydney every now and then for no reason but that stopped and now she is so sweet and gentle with her. She loves to kiss her and gets so excited around her. She runs over to her randomly throughout the day and yells, "this is the baby!" and "hi baby!" Sydney is huge for her age. Even though Sage has always been in the 90th percentile for size she was always true to size/age with clothes but Sydney is wearing 6-9 month size and she's almost 3 months old! Sage is getting smarter every day. She talks so much and can count to ten. She knows many letters in the alphabet and she loves to sing songs. I think she has a nice voice. She's already showing an ability to hear a note and sing it correctly which I think is impressive. Back to Sydney: another reason we love her is that she's been sleeping through the night since she was 3 weeks old! Isn't that amazing? She sleeps about 8 hours, wakes up to eat and goes back to sleep for another 3 or 4 hours. The latest exciting event we had was a surprise visit from my dad. He flew in to surprise me for Sydney's baby blessing. He came the third weekend of September. He was here from that Friday-Monday. It was a brief visit but a lot of fun. Sage warmed up to him by the 2nd day. Our next exciting event is a trip to Texas for thanksgiving. We'll be there for a week. My sister Stephanie is driving down from Kansas with her 2 kids. I'll get to see my whole family. Traveling with 2 kids under two will be an adventure. Here are a few recent pictures. I need to take more. Enjoy!

10 lbs 10 ozs

Thursday Aug. 5th our second daughter arrived, arrived in a big way! Check out the title. That's right. That's her weight. All the nurses kept asking if Val had Gestational Diabetes which she didn't. After the docters pulled her out you can hear them all talking amongst themselves saying "Look how big she is" - "I bet she's nine pounds" - "I bet she's bigger" - "She's a whopper"

Needless to say Val gave birth to a 3 month old beautiful baby girl.

Sydney Raelyn Pitcavage

Her middle name is a combination of Val's Dads first name and her Mom's middle name. Sydney is derived from old english and means Wide Island. Rae, though represents her dads name, is a shortened form of Rachel. From Hebrew Rachel or Rae means Ewe. Lynn from the Welsh form of Llyn means Lake. And of course Pitcavage means Three wolves howling at the moon.

So if you put it all together her name beautifully means: The ewe that roams the wide island sips water from the lake with three wolves that howl at the moon.

John's segment is over.

Now onto Valerie.

I apologize for my hubby's "over the top" and weird version of the birth of our daughter. The first part is true about the nurses betting on how much she weighed. I had a scheduled c-section and good thing I did considering her size. My body didn't want to go into labor so we ended up scheduling it a week after my due date. This time was a little less stressful since we knew what to expect and it wasn't an emergency surgery like with Sage. Sydney is beautiful and chubby. She has such a cute round face and looks different than her big sister. So far she's been a content little thing but not too keen on sleeping at night. John has been an amazing husband and has gotten up with her all through the night so I can rest. My mom is here helping thank goodness. I probably would've lost my mind by now if she wasn't here. If only she could stay forever and help me! Anyone up for being my nanny without pay? It'll bring lots of blessings! :) Sage so far seems cool with having the baby around. She likes to call her baby all the time and last night she tried feeding Sydney bread while she was sleeping. She also likes to poke her face and tell us where her eyes, nose, ears, and mouth are. The cutest thing of all is when Sage gives her kisses. Anyway, we feel so blessed to have another special little spirit come into our family. Here are a few pictures of baby Sydney!

Our first family picture. Sage wasn't in the best mood so this is the best we could do.

Here we are right before leaving the hospital

Sydney sleeping on her Daddy's chest. How cute!

Sydney close-up

Sydney with her "NiNi"

ANY DAY NOW!!!!

I am now 4 days overdue to have our second baby girl. I am getting very uncomfortable and I am so ready to not be pregnant anymore! I have a c-section scheduled for Thursday morning, August 5th. My mom is coming to help the night of August 4th. She'll be here for 2 1/2 weeks which will be a huge help. I still can't believe I'm gonna have another baby already. I have so many emotions going on. Nerves of course, excitement, fear, stress, anticipation, and gratitude. For me the most exciting thing about having a baby is to see what he or she looks like. I can't wait to see if this one looks just like her sister or completely different. I just hope she is healthy and everything turns out ok. I was hoping to go into labor on my own but my body doesn't seem to want to get the babies out. I am not looking forward to another surgery but if that's what it takes for the baby to be ok then that's what we'll do. I'm so grateful that Heavenly Father is blessing us with another special spirit. Sage has brought overwhelming joy to our lives and I'm sure this baby will too. I'll post pictures of our new daughter as soon as I can. I'll definitely have the time since I won't be in any shape to leave the house much. I will keep everyone posted!

SAGE IS WALKING!

Sage is finally walking on her own! She has been taking her precious time getting around to it. I guess I can't blame her because she crawls so fast she can get anywhere very quickly. She can take about 10 steps in a row before she decides to squat onto the floor. I took this cute picture of her today walking and the video below is from one week ago, July 6th at my sister-in-law Liz's house. That was the first day she took so many steps in a row. Before this video she had been taking 2 or 3 steps at a time and then lowering to the ground. She is pretty coordinated and isn't falling down very much. She chooses to stop and crawl instead. I hope y'all enjoy the picture and video!

Lake Seneca and July 4th

We went to Palmyra, NY on our annual Hill Cumorah Pageant trip. We stayed in Geneva which is about 20 minutes away. It borders Lake Seneca, one of the finger lakes, and it is the most beautiful lake I’ve ever seen. I love traveling there every year and enjoying the scenery. We stopped on the side of the road in Geneva to take this picture. Isn’t that water gorgeous? We decided that if we were very wealthy, one of our many vacation homes would be on this lake.

Here we are watching the fireworks in good old Pittston, PA. We put some noise cancelling headphones on Sage. She loved the fireworks. We had a great 4th of July weekend. We went to a fun party, had John’s 10 year high school reunion , and we had the Pitcavage family reunion. Lots of food, fireworks, and fun.