Halloween

What a great Halloween we all had this year. The weather was perfect, nice and warm with no coats needed, and it was a Saturday night. We always start the night off at our neighbors house. She opens her garage and everyone in the neighborhood brings over lots of yummy food and drinks for dinner. Then the dads fill up the wagons with the kids (and some adult beverages) and head off for candy. The moms stay back and drink lots of beer and wine. (Not sure how this day turned into so much fun for the adults.)

Julia was a girl pirate...(I think she just liked the picture of the girl on the bag who she thought looked really cool. Notice she is standing just like the girl on the bag.)

Nicholas was some kind of GI Joe guy...not sure...but love the pose...

And Gianna looked so precious in her Dorothy costume. She didn't complain once about putting it on either. Amazing.

Danny spent hours carving this...so cool.

After the kids came back, they dumped all their candy out to see what they got. Nicholas is doing lots of trading today with his friends.

Great Halloween!

Farm Day...again

It was Farm Day once again at Little Blessings. This was our 6th Farm Day so we know the drill...run to the pony rides first! First in line equals a happy child...

Cute baby animals...even this little black pig was cute...

Cute little bunnies to pat...

The girls made face masks...

My cute little piglet...

The three of them contemplated hard about which face painting to get...

and Gianna once again choose the snake...why? Don't know...

Julia choose the shooting star...

And Nicholas went with the Bruins...of course...


After all the little ones got a ride...the bigger kids got to ride too...

The kids did a cute hoe down dance but I only caught the end of it on video...

Dress Up

Julia and her friends played dress up with Gianna...she looked soooo cute!

What's been going on around here

Julia

Oh the drama when she has loose teeth. I just dread it. I will never forget when she lost her first tooth in Disney last year. Oh, dear Lord. She caused the biggest scene. She had all the Disney staff and security running to help her and a big circle of spectators around us. Talk about embarrassing. They thought she was seriously injured. No, it was just her tooth. So today, I was cringing at the thought of her going to gymnastics with her front tooth dangling in her mouth. I told her not to cause a scene if it fell out there. I even contemplated sitting there for the whole two hours in case it did fall out and I had to whisk her off to put on the straight jacket to control her. But by the grace of the good Lord above, it fell out on the way to the gym! Hooray! But doesn't she look cute??? Three down...a whole mouthful to go...give me strength.

Nicholas

The other night when Julia was going to bed, she asked if she could keep the light on. When I asked why, she started crying as she was remembering a nightmare from the night before. Nicholas walked into the room minutes later and handed her his dream catcher that he had made in Kindergarten. He said, "Here you go Julia. This will keep the bad dreams away" and tied it onto her bed. Sweet.

Then last night, Gianna proceeded to break the second snow globe I bought for her while I was in New York visiting Berta. She was heartbroken when the first one broke so you can only imagine what it was like when she broke the second one (let alone the glassy watery mess left behind). Nicholas is always the first one to run and comfort her with lots of hugs and kisses. He went up to his room and came down with all his Lego's. He told her he wanted her to have them. What an amazing boy we have. He has such a good heart.

Gianna

As I mentioned in my last post, our little one is learning how to read! She is our earliest reader at 4 1/2. She's enjoying this so much. It makes her feel like such a big girl and she's so proud of herself.

Proud

I have to say how PROUD I am of Nicholas the past few weeks. Second grade is much, much harder than first grade and he is doing fantastic! Not only is he doing well in school but he's not complaining AT ALL about all the homework he has to do. He used to whine, moan and fall off his chair but now he just sits right down and digs in with a ton of effort. What happened??? I have no idea but I'm just so impressed and amazed at his effort. Such a good boy we have.

And...Gianna is reading!!! At 4 1/2 she has started reading Dick and Jane books! She has learned sight words like up, down, funny, the, and, red, blue, yellow, etc. Just amazing! I'm going to video tape her tomorrow so I can put it on here for all to see.

Proud, proud, proud!!!

The Boys are back

The Boys are back with a new CD and I'm loving it! They get lots of grief from the critics but they have a huge following and I absolutely adore them.

Gravity

"I think everybody at one point will have or has had an experience with wanting something that is not good for you."

~ Mia Micheals ~

Something always brings me back to you.
It never takes too long.
No matter what I say or do I'll still feel you here 'til the moment I'm gone.

You hold me without touch.
You keep me without chains.
I never wanted anything so much than to drown in your love and not feel your reign.

Set me free, leave me be.
I don't want to fall another moment into your gravity.
Here I am and I stand so tall, just the way I'm supposed to be.
But you're on to me and all over me.

You loved me 'cause I'm fragile.
When I thought that I was strong.
But you touch me for a little while and all my fragile strength is gone.

I live here on my knees as I try to make you see that you're everything I think I need here on the ground.
But you're neither friend nor foe though I can't seem to let you go.
The one thing that I still know is that you're keeping me down.

Lip Synching

Julia and her cute friend, Stephanie (1/3 of the infamous triplets).

Look who came for breakfast...

When I gave Gianna her bowl of cereal this morning, I noticed these little guys ready to have breakfast with her....

Our fridge

This is our refrigerator in the kitchen. I can only imagine what people think when they see it.

The artwork is constantly changing...and the majority of it I have to say is Julia's. She is forever making pictures for me. She whipped up these two pictures just yesterday when she got home from school.


This is what she made for me for her first day of art class...

And look what Nicholas drew in art class...his first picture of KoKo.

Gianna loves animals so that's usually what she draws...not bad for 4 years old.

So my favorite recent photos go on top...

and artwork on the bottom...

One time I took everything off to clean it and WOW did our kitchen look BIGGER. So yes...it may look a "little" messy but it's a summary of what our life is like right now and it brings me JOY.

Ring the Bell

Julia has been ringing the bell a lot lately at gymnastics. When you get a new trick, you ring a bell so everyone can watch you. Last week she rang the bell for getting her shoot through on the bars. The other day she rang the bell for getting her round off back handspring. Then yesterday, she rang the bell for getting her front handspring vault. (That one really, really surprised me!) She's only been doing gymnastics for 7 months and just turned 7 years old a month ago. I can't even imagine what's next.

16 years and counting

Friday was our 16th wedding anniversary. Danny bought me some pretty flowers and three cards. He loves buying cards. I usually get one funny one and one serious one. This year I got two funny ones and one serious one. One of the funny ones gave me a good belly laugh. It said:

Sometimes when we're lying in bed, I look over at you and think "I am so lucky." Then you start snoring in that snorty way, and I think, "Well, that's annoying but I'm still lucky."

And his serious cards are seriously good...they always bring tears to my eyes.

Last night we went out alone for the first time in a looooong time. We always have the kids with us or friends coming along so this was very nice...just the two of us. We went out for a nice dinner and then out for more drinks after. Simple but very nice.

Love you Babe!

Apples, apples and more apples

Yesterday was our apple picking day. We picked a great day to go as it was a beautiful September day with warm sunshine and deep blue skys.

Danny got quite the workout lifting the kids up high to pick the best apples from the trees...

Gianna ate tons of apples...

and so did Nicholas...

but Julia has too many loose teeth...

Waiting patiently for the hayride to arrive...

Nicholas loves his little sister who can hardly ever do no wrong...

I made my lazyman apple pie for dessert last night and it was DELICIOUS!

Meet KoKo Rainbow Nemo Unicorn Digiacomo

Here's our new kitty KoKo (the cat with the most middle names)...

We adopted him from our local animal shelter two days ago. KoKo spent the first day hiding but now he's out and about the first floor. He's living the good life compared to the days of being a stray and being stuck in a cage at the shelter. He's about a year old.

I know he looks a lot like Lucky (which is so comforting to me) but there are differences like he's a lot smaller, his nose is different, his meow is higher and sweeter and his eyes are bright gold.

He's so sweet and very, very good with the kids. Much more approachable than Lucky.

I still miss my Lucky boy so very much but KoKo is slowing filling that place in my heart.

Time alone...

First day of preschool for Gianna today. I now have 2 hours and 45 minutes to myself three mornings a week. The first time in EIGHT YEARS. What's a Mom to do? I know...actually get in and out a store as quickly or maybe as slowly as I want. Oh...and to actually be able to hear myself think while I shop or work instead of listening to whining (Julia) or constant talking (Gianna).


I would have put her hair up but she wouldn't let me (more about that below)....

Mommy forgot her name tag and her towel to snuggle with for story time. Good job Mommy!

All Gianna talked about when she got home were the boys in her class. "Ted is so funny Mommy"..."I did something nice to Johnny today. I told him I loved him."...."There's a new boy named Logan"...and on and on about the boys. I mentioned some of the girls and she was pretty non responsive about them. Mom (Shirl) thinks it's because the boys are more fun. I think she's just too loud, active and outgoing for the little quite girls in her class.

On another note, Gianna took quite a fall out of bed over the weekend. It was around midnight Friday when she fell and hit her head on her nightstand. Her caring sister, Julia, told us she woke up to a loud bang and heard Gianna crying. She said she asked Gianna if she was OK and then proceeded to fall back to sleep. That's our girl! Nicholas woke up around 6:00 to the sound of Gianna crying and went to check on her (that's our boy!). He saw blood all over her sheets and came to wake us up. She had quite the gash on the back of her head but the biggest problem was her neck. She pulled a muscle and was in quite a lot of pain. Danny took her to the ER to be checked out. She didn't need stitches thank goodness. They cleaned her up and sent her home. Lots of Tylenol, Motrin and heating pads later, we're happy to report she is back to her normal crazy self today...although she won't let us brush her hair on the boo boo side as seen in the crazy head of hair pictures above.

Not sure what she was playing tonight...she has a wonderful imagination and entertains herself for hours on end making up games...

Notice the bright green hot wheels car in her hand. I took her to McDonalds for a special after school lunch today. With her meal, she could choose a Barbie toy (comb, mirror, make up, etc.) or a hot wheels car. Of course, given the choice, she picked the fun action toy!

More FUNNY STUFF:

Walking through Target today, Gianna was rambling on and on about how something happened and Julia wasn't nice to her. I was half listening until I heard Gianna say, "My heart feels weird. It feels like it's bleeding." I stop and look at her thinking my little one is having a heart attack or something. I ask her why and she said, "My heart is bleeding because Julia was mean to me." Honestly, how does she come up with this stuff?

Leotard Trouble

What a pretty leotard, right? Most little girls would love to wear something like this for their first day of dance class...or so you would think.

Gianna picked this out all by herself and was quite excited to wear it. After she put it on, she said it felt "itchy" in the back. So I did this...

"Ahhhh" she said "much better"...or so I thought. Minutes later she comes around the corner itching herself like crazy. She tells me she wants to take it off. Great...quite a few dollars later and no tags equals it can't be returned.

So she wore this old thing...

It was originally Julia's so it's been around for a while. It's what she felt comfortable in so this is what she wore for her first day of dance. For all of us who know and love her...are we surprised???

And some more FUNNY STUFF...

Me: "Gianna. It's kind of chilly out today. I think you should put on something a little warmer."

Gianna: "No Mama! My fur will keep me warm!"

Letting him go

Last night as we were sitting outside by the fire Gianna, who is all of 4, looked up at the stars in the sky. She spotted the brightest star and said to me, "Mama. That's where Jesus and Lucky are." Then she started whispering softly to herself as she was looking up at that star. I heard her say, "Lucky, I'm letting you go now....I'm letting you go." And for the very first time, she didn't cry when she spoke of him...

I think we're finally ready for a new furry friend to join our family.