Our Little Italian/American angel bakin in the oven!

This is the last ultra sound taken of her at 21 weeks with her little hand by her face and she looked like she was just a talking away. So For sure she is my daughter and is half Italian=)

The picture of her hand was right before we turned off the ultrasound as if she was waving good-bye to us!!!! CIAO Mom & Dad

This is belly pic #3 at 22 weeks and 3 days!!!! WOW I think it has doubled in the past 4 weeks!

This is belly pic #2 at 18 weeks and 3 days. This is the day we found out we were having A GIRL

This is my first belly pic at 14 weeks and 2 days!

I know you have all been asking to see the "belly" pic's. I didn't feel so comfortable posting them all on facebook so I thought I'd share them with all our close family and friends on here. As of today I am in the beginning of my 23rd week. I am so happy to say I have had a great pregnancy. The first trimester was a little difficult but nothing I couldn't handle. I felt like I had a cold EVERY single day. My nose was always runny and my throat was always killing me, I had 0% energy and couldn't get out of bed before 10 a.m. We went to the doctor and he said it was just allergies and being in the first trimester didn't help. He said most women that have never had allergies before get them while they are pregnant and told me to hang in there my first trimester was just about over. I was happy it was only allergies and not a virus of some kind. Then after my first trimester ended it was like the day of it ending I started to get really bad migraines, I have always had a head ache problem but not to this extent. I would get at least one a week and they would completely knock me out. Any sound, lights, or me getting up out of bed would kill my head. I would have to stay in bed and try to sleep it off. I was lucky to have Massi there with me. Muffin needed to be taken out but I couldn't even get up to take her out. The air, the sunlight and the cars would pierce my eyes and ears. He was a trooper like always and was always there to take her out and to cook for us even after his long day at work. He's a great hubby to have around. I tried to watch what I was eating to see if it was something I had in my diet that was making these migraines appear. Nothing really seemed to cut them, they seemed to be exactly one week later from the last one. I haven't had one yet for the past 3 weeks and I'm so happy for that. I feel like I have so much more energy and I am able to go do all the things I have planned for the day. If I feel one coming on now I just hurry and have a glass of Coke and it seems to make it go away. These have been the only things happen that were really bad during my pregnancy so I feel VERY lucky. I have had a few friends that have not had such a good experience and I feel so bad for them. Being Pregnant is such an AMAZING thing. I started to feel her move in my 17th week. At first I wasn't sure what the feeling was till it started to happen more often. It felt to me like a paint brush was inside my belly paining away. It freaked me out at first I wasn't too sure about the whole thing. It was just a little strange at first is all. Then once the movement got stronger I began to love the feeling. Now I feel her everyday. Massi first felt her right after we went to bed. Candice and Rachael both said to me, "wait till you see his face when he can feel her move, it becomes more real to them too and seeing their expression on their face is PRICELESS!" So we went to bed on night all the lights were off and I turned over on my back for a quick second and felt 3 BIG punches or kicks and I said WOW Massi feel....He put his hand on my tummy and felt 5 BIG punches or kicks...not sure which one they were but they were HUGE. He was so excited and thought it was pretty cool to finally feel her move. After he felt her I said, OH NOOO I didn't get to see your face for the first time=(" I was bummed but now he feels her move all the time and it's as if it was his first time every time. He puts his hear to my tummy and speaks to her in Italian....Don't worry I make sure it's the good Italian and not the bad=) He's very cute with her already. He tells her good night and good morning everyday.

After Christmas we are going to start on her room. I can't wait to see the final result. I have this perfect image in my mind so we'll see how it all turns out. If it weren't for Rachael I'm not to sure how it would look. Rachael is actually from Utah as well and has been living here for I believe 5 years or more, she is also married to an Italian and they have a 11 month old baby girl Charlotte. But because of Rachael, our little girl will have a cute room! She has offered to help me make all her bedding and some other things to match in the nursery. Being in another country while your pregnant is one thing but then trying to decorate her room the way you like and you don't like ANY of the Italian things is another thing. I am so grateful to have her here as a friend. You have inspired me to become more domestic and I can't wait to learn how to sew.....let's just hope you have a lot of patents that day=) JK it will be so much fun and a great experience. She has helped me in so many ways. We have to find or compromise ways with our recipes since we don't carry the same ingredients as the states. Rachael is like wonder women when it comes to cooking, sewing, being a great mother and friend, and sharing ideas. It's nice to have someone here who knows what it's like moving to another country, learning a new language and being away from family & friends.

I will post more updates through out the next few months on the baby and her room of our progress in the making.

ROME

So my wonderful husband decided to take me to Rome for my first time over the weekend. We left Friday afternoon. As we were driving Massimo was explaining to me some of the things to be aware of in Rome. Such as: be careful with your purse, don't trust anyone, be careful to the drivers, etc... Ya ya ya I said. If I have experienced Milan in rush hour I can handle Rome (I thought) So as we're driving we get stuck in a huge traffic clutter. Our 5 or 6 hour drive turned into a 9 hour drive. Our poor friends who we were staying with were waiting for us to eat dinner. We finally arrived at 9:30. They had dinner all prepared when we arrived. They are such a sweet and fun couple to be around. After dinner we prepared the bed and got ready for a nice long nights sleep. They said be ready for tomorrow we have a great day planned for you guys. The next morning after breakfast we headed out. Gabriele offered to drive, I thought that was nice of him so Massi and I could sit in the back seat and enjoy the sites of Rome. The second we pulled out of their street I thought we were going to DIE!!! There are absolutely NO RULES to driving in Rome. Now, you think that would be nice and great but no there was nothing nice about it. I was trying to look out my window to see buildings and such but the second I would someone would cut in front of us, blowing horns would start going off from every direction and every one starts yelling out their car windows.....and me white knuckled with a look of fear on my face! Massi of course just laughs and says "it's the music of Rome babe" If you don't know already Italians are peots when it comes to driving. In America I'm so used to the honking of A horn once and saying get out of the way or something like that. Well not Italians....Their starting line in the HOOOORN then a poem that goes along with it. It's about who ever made them mad and each family member that person may have and what's all wrong with that person and what they wish could happen to that person. Really no joke it's a 3 page poem!! So finally after my near death experience(s) we arrive to the subway. They all 3 say to me, "Michelle be careful these can be scary" UMMMM no the subways were probably where I felt the most safe=)

As we got off the underground and walked up the stares....There it was. Something I've ALWAYS dreamed about seeing and I was there standing right in front of it. The Coliseum! It didn't seem real to me, all the history I learned about in school I was finally there seeing it with my own eyes and with Massimo. Everytime there was something big to see he would look over at my face instead of the site. He said he loved to watch the first look on my face right when I saw something. We walked ALL around. We saw the Roman Forum, the temple of Antoninus & Faustina, the Coliseum, the temple of Vesta, Arch of Titus, the temple of the Dioscuri, temple of Saturn. We walked to the Capitoline square down to the Venezia palace where there is the balcony of Mussolini and where Hitler and him once stood. That was creepy for me to see. Then we walked to the church where a part of The Da Vinci code was filmed. That was beautiful to see and a lot bigger inside from what it looks on the outside. Then we went to the Piazza di Spagna and saw the amazing steps with the Barcaccia Fountain at the bottom. Then we walked to the Piazza del Popolo, where there are the two twin churches and the Flaminio Obelisk. We finally ended the day and went back to our friends house. We were all so exhausted, we relaxed for a few hours then we went to a near by resturant called Al Cantuccio where Massi and I had the typical Roman pasta dish, Spaghetti Cacio E Pepe. It was really yummy. It's just a spaghetti pasta with creamy cacio cheese with black peper. I didn't know what Cacio cheese was till I had this dish but it's a kind of soft creamy sheeps milk manufactured in Rome and is also called "caciotta" it has a very strong flavor and is really yummy!

Sunday we woke up, had breakfast and went to Vatican City!!! We went at noon to Saint peter's square to see and hear the Pope! It's one thing to see him on TV up in his window speaking every Sunday but when you're there looking up at him from the square he looks so tiny and has this little voice you can barely hear. It was pretty amazing to see him and all the people that go to hear him speak, there were sooo many people around and all their kids had balloons they'd let go up into the sky once the Pope came to his window. He said a few things in English I was impressed. The line to get inside the St. Peters church was so long and there were so many other things we wanted to see so we thought we'd come back later. We then went to Saint Angelo's Castle and walked all around there and stopped to have a coffee. There was an ice skating rink set up on the side of the road where a bunch of people were ice skating, It's so strange to me to see all the Christmas lights and decorations going up and still have no snow. It's really cold here but with out the pretty snow. I miss my Utah weather. We were really lucky with the weather in Rome for the 3 days we were there it was sunny each day till the day we left when it started pouring rain. So after the castle we walked accross the big bridge that goes over the Tiber river and to the Trevi Fountain. It is one of the biggest fountains in Rome and one of the most beautiful. Massi and I went down and each threw a coin and made a wish! We had to end our day there because there was a Roman Dirby that night and Gabriele is a Roman soccer fan so it was a very important event.... We went back to their house and ordered pizza and watched the match. It was so nice to have a relaxing night after all the walking we did. Italians are not only poets when they drive they are also poets when they watch soccer....They are crazy about the sport, I'm not sure which is more exciting to watch the match or the person watching the match. Thank goodness Gabriele's team won!!

Monday Massi and I went out on our own. We went right to St. Peters church cause we wanted to get inside before a huge line started. As we drove down there we passed the Circo Massimo (The Circus Maximus) the old Roman chariot racing stadium and we passed the Terme di caracalla (The baths of Caracalla) both were so amazing I had to stop and take pictures. We finally made it to St. Peters church! As we were walking inside we saw the Swiss Guards, guarding the door into the part of the church where the Pope lives. First we went down under the church to the tombs where all the popes are buried. I had no idea there was so many popes...oops. Even though I'm not Catholic it was still an amazing thing to see and feel. Especially when we got to the last pope, Pope John Paul. There were people kneeling and praying in front of his tomb. You could just feel how strong their religion was to them. There was a guard on each side of the wall where he lies and wouldn't allow people to take photograghs of the area. People put flowers and letters to him on the ground, it was just a great thing to see. Then we went up into the church. WOW!!!! It is HUGE and so wonderful. My mouth just dropped as we walked into the door. The first thing I saw was the huge bronze altar with the spiral colunms right under the dome. The whole church was just amazing. I think we would of had to spend at least 2 hours inside just to see it all. We really wanted to go up to the top and see the view of Rome and the inside of the dome but of course there was ANOTHER huge line and we were both starving so we headed out. We went and grabbed some lunch a little cafe then headed to the Sistine Chapel. Massi and I really wanted to see the ceiling so it was an intense walk to get there. You have to go up a huge spiral staircase and go through several other rooms (which were interesting too) but we were both so anxious to get to the ceiling. Once we arrived to the room both of us were just silent and looking up and every single thing. We spoted the creation of Adam (the finger touch) right away, I had to take a picture of it, then we turned around and there was the Last Judgement!!!! All these amazing things and the workers there tell you "NO PHOTOS" and I'm not sure anyone listened to them. Once I saw someone else take a picture of course I started taking a picture. Massi says, "good job babe you're becoming Italian." It was AMAZING!!! Now I know I wasn't the best student in school and especially in History so to me a lot of this trip was a slap in the face for not paying more attention in school. Things sounded familiar but I wasn't 100% sure of all my facts. Massi was kind of the same so for us this was a History lesson up close. After our long day we were both tired and ready to head back to Gabriele & Manuela's house. We started walking back to our car and walked through the St. Peter's Square again. Seeing it at night is wonderful. The lights on the fountains, the lights on the church and you could see the light on in the Popes office. He's still in there just working away. We were one day short to see the BIG Christmas tree with all the lights on at night. They put all their Christmas lights and decorations up on the 7th of December and light them that night. We were leaving the next morning so we barely missed it in person. We arrived back to our friends house and they offered to make us a Roman dinner so we could relax and chat on our last night with them. They are such great people, we really enjoyed our time spent with them. The dinner was great and chatting all night was fun! It was sad to say good-bye to them. They woke up early the next day with us to have breakfast all together. We said our good-byes and we were off. There were two things we wanted to see before leaving town. The Mosè (The statue of Moses created by Michelangelo) and the Mouth of Truth....The Mosè was just amazing as well to see in person. It's one of those statues that looks like he's staring right at you even when you move. He was in the church of St. Peter in Chains. That was a cool thing to learn about that I never knew. They had the original chains that were used to chain St. Peter during his imprisonment in Jerusalem and Rome. The Mouth of Truth was in the church of St. Mary in Cosmedin. There wasn't a long line so we hurried and parked and got in line. According to a mediaeval tradition it is always ready to bite all those who tell lies as soon as they put their hand inside its mouth...We got up to the front of the line and YES Massi and I both put our hands in its mouth and took a picture...We each still have both hands.....ha ha.

That's the end to our Wonderful, Amazing, Historical Adventure. I am so happy to have had the opportunity to experience and see all the things I did. I am so grateful to have the husband I do who takes me to all these wonderful places in the world and shares my first time with me. On our way home when it was pouring rain, we saw 3 huge rainbows. It was a great ending to our adventure. We had such a great time seeing all the things we once learned about and learning about so many new things. Together we have so much fun. We already have a list of things to see the next time we go. There is no way you can fit EVERYTHING in 3 days so for sure there will be a trip back, Who's ready to go with us?