4 years and counting!

Today Joey and I are celebrating 4 years of marriage. It's hard to believe four years have gone by already. This anniversary is extra special because we get to celebrate the greatest achievement in our marriage which is, of course, the birth of Clara. It's such an amazing experience to be able to create a new life with the person you love. We are loving everyday with Clara. She is seven weeks old now and is really starting to smile a lot and vocalize. Tonight Joey is preparing a fresh seafood stew which my parents and I are really looking forward to. I'm sure we will also celebrate with some champaign and something nice and fattening for dessert. Till next post...Erin

Congratulations Joey!

Dear Friends and Family,

This week Joey graduated from Yale with a master's degree in organ performance from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music and Yale School of Music. Joey was also awarded the Yale School of Music Alumni Association Prize for 2011 which is given to students who "have not only excelled in their respective fields, but have also made important contributions to the general life of the school." Congratulations Joey! We also celebrated Clara's 5 week birthday. She is doing really well and is starting to smile and vocalize more and more! She even slept 6 hours straight one night this past week but unfortunately it hasn't happened since. Maybe one day! We are looking forward to some family visits in the near future. My parents will be here June 6th for a month while Joey is in Europe giving recitals and working with his church choir, and my aunt and uncle from Virginia will be here in a few weeks for a visit. We can't wait for them to meet Clara. Things are moving forward with Joey's job situation starting in August. The church is finalizing the contract and Joey should be signing it very soon. I will write more about the job once everything is official.

Enjoy the rest of May!

Erin

Clara is 3 weeks old! (and some other good news)

Hello Family and Friends,

It's hard to believe that little Clara is already 3 weeks old. The last 3 weeks have been exciting but also exhausting. Clara's sleep habits have been pretty random. Some nights she is able to sleep 1.5-2 hours between feedings and other nights she can't seem to go to sleep at all. Up until today Joey's mom was here to help and we were able to take naps during the day while she took care of Clara. Unfortunately she had to go back to Minnesota yesterday so now we are trying to establish some sort of a schedule that works for the three of us. Fortunately Joey is finished with school now so he has a lot more free time to help me with Clara. I will go back to my violin teaching next week but since I only teach two days a week I don't anticipate it being too difficult. Clara is very strong and already lifts her head quite a bit and tries to roll over on her side. She has also started to produce occasional smiles which I am convinced are not gas related. haha! She has changed so much in the last few weeks. Clara occupies most of our "exciting" news these days but we had another wonderful event occur earlier this week. I can't release any details until a contract is officially signed in a few weeks, but Joey has been offered a wonderful job starting in August. I can tell you that it is a full time position as organist/choir master at a church but that's all I am going to say for now. I promise to post more as soon as everything is official. Anyway, that is our news for now. I hope this post finds you all well and safe. We have been experiencing some beautiful summer-like weather here in Connecticut and are looking forward to spending more time outside now that our schedules have freed up a bit.

Best wishes to you all!

Erin and Joey