More wonderful days ...

Nice Crib!

Evelyn took her first nap in her crib! Way to go baby!

Guppy Brennan

Susi was in town for her baby shower and came by to see the new place and spend some time with Evie. They are due October 2nd!

Fourth of July

We had a great weekend on the lake at Rattlesnake Island with family and friends. The Chiang Johnsen family flew in from Boston and alot of old friends from highschool were there; Steph, Nate, Chloe and Colton Zampelli and Jack Koch, his wife Holyn and their daughter McGill.

Thanks so much Tom and Carol for hosting such a memorable weekend!

Hi Aunt Kathy!

Beatty's Aunt Kathy is going to log onto the web for the first time to see her great niece's baby pictures. Way to go!

Kathy, if you click on the photos, give the computer a few seconds and it should open them up larger so they're easier to see. If your having trouble, ask the librarian for help. Also, ask them to help you scroll down so you can see all the entries.

Love you!

Too funny!

Taken by our friend Sarah. Thanks Rux!!

Summer's Here!

We just arrived at the 8 week mark with Evelyn - smooth sailing from here on out! yeah right! We are all doing really well and are beginning to see some patterns. She is already almost 13 pounds and starting to sleep more consistently. The next step is to put her on a schedule.

So far the summer has been great. We've been boating, our friend Meg was in town with her kids, Ruxin came up to see the baby and we even went out for dinner! Tom and Carol opened up their pool this week and Beatty took Evelyn swimming for the first time. She screamed her eyes out for the first few minutes and then became very serious. Yesterday we spent some time with the Ballerini + Frantz family pool-side for some bbq and beers. You've gotta love summer!

Official Birth Announcement

design from www.tinyprints.com

Settling In

This is Evelyn Virginia DiNovi-McDonald. She arrived a week ago today after 13 hours of a natural labor. The experience was just as we hoped (little intervention from the hospital) and Beatty was a fantastic coach, I couldn't have done it without him. We arrived back home on Sunday and we've spent this week trying to figure out what we're doing! So far we're hanging in there; she is truly amazing.

We're thinking that her nickname will be Evie (with a long e, like her initials E then V) but we'll see, that's one of those things that will evolve. Evelyn was Beatty's grandmothers name (Mom's side) and Virginia is my Mom's name (and my middle name). Since I have the best husband ever, we've decided to hyphenate the last name to allow the DiNovi name to continue.

Uncle Brian flew in from Boston with his girlfriend Danielle this week to meet Evelyn. We had a great time seeing them both.

Here are some more images of the baby. We hope this finds you well!

It's a girl!

Evelyn Virginia was born today at 2:42pm. This is her first moment. An amazing experience. It was truly beyond my wildest expectations. In the words of Mark Linkous "your first burning breath, was a symphony." More to come...

We're In!

We've officially moved into our new home and love it! We've been in for about a week and now we're just waiting on the baby! Our due date is in less than a week so any day now ...

Our new address:
525 Literary Road
Cleveland, OH 44113

Thank You for such an Amazing Baby Shower!!

I wanted to thank the Zampelli family for hosting such a memorable baby shower for us. It was an unbelievable day with amazing women, gifts, food and dessert! Everything was perfect and we're so grateful for their hospitality and generosity. Thanks Rosie, Steph and Kate!!!

We also wanted to thank everyone else for their generosity and for sharing such a great day with us!

And finally to the Chiang-Johnsen family for flying all the way out here from Boston!

Our New Place ... Hopefully

We're on the FINAL COUNTDOWN - we've just been approved for the loan on the new house, next we'll need to close, move, unpack (at the least set up the babies room) and then finally have this baby!! Now, if only we can guarantee this order ...

Our new mantra - if we're going to go through a life change, we might as well change EVERYTHING!!

The new place is located in the Tremont area of Cleveland. Once we close, I'll post our new address and info. Keep your fingers crossed!

Back Home

Hi!
We've been in Cleveland for a little over a week now and Beatty has already started his new job and we're under agreement on a new house!. The house is located in Tremont - a trendy area about a mile from downtown - with great restaurants, coffee shops, boutiques and galleries. We'll have plenty of room for guests (guest bedroom and full bath) so we hope to see you out here soon! The airfares are pretty cheap from Boston!! (Continental into Cleveland or AirTran into Akron). Once we close on the house I'll post some images.

Best,
Leslie and Beatty

Girls FYI - the waist line has grown another +1" since the shower!! I'm now at 41"!!