Christmas Hoopla.

Well I haven't posted in a week due to being extremely busy with Christmas and my family. M had 4 days off of work, so that was really fun. We had Christmas day here. Then Friday and Saturday just played with our new things and hung out. Saturday night we went out to eat as a family to the Japanese restaurant Hikari in Overland Park. It was so good. The kids loved the guy cooking right in front of us. Luca was an angel and just watched it all.

I got a new KitchenAid stand mixer. It is really cool. I also got a diamond anniversary band from my hubby. It is beautiful! He had bought a guitar and amp last month, so I got him a DVD player as well to open under the tree. Gioia got a electric guitar and Dominic got a drum. She also got a dollhouse and he got a train table with trains.

Here are a few of the highlights. My moms area got several inches of ice the week of the 20th. It made driving fun.

Rag Quilt

I made this super easy rag quilt this week. It is a pretty small lap quilt, about baby quilt size really. I made if for my Great Great Aunt. She is in her 90's and still doing great. She really liked it.

Tutorial here

Quote of the day!

Quote of the day from my daughter!

"I don't care what Santa brings me, as long as its a present!"

Family Christmas parties.

This weekend we had Christmas at my moms. We had Christmas at my Grandmas (Moms side), and also with my Aunt (Dad's side of the family). You know the drill: more food than we can eat in a week, presents, presents and occasionally a glass of beer or wine. Love it! Here are some of the highlights.

Oh and i don't think I mentioned it yet. My sister is engaged. Congratulations Mel and Scott!


This is my Grandma Leota holding Luca.


My mom Elaine and Stepdad Steve.

Crash into me.

Last night the kids were running around wild like always and they crashed into each other. Somehow Dominic's teeth hit Gioia's shoulder. She had this scrapped place that looked like he sat his teeth on her and dragged them down. It was definitely not on purpose. They were both crying. Dominic's mouth was bleeding from the gums. It was his remaining front tooth that was bumped. This morning the gums look kind of swollen. Poor guy. This front tooth is chipped and filled. The other front was the one he had pulled. I hope he is more gentle with his permanent teeth.

kcap quilt

kcap quilt
Originally uploaded by jaime_perreca

A while back some of my mom friends and I did a quilt square swap. It was fun. This weekend I was feeling like doing quilting so I put the top together. 6 of these squares I made, 6 of them my friends made.

I plan on doing the actual quilting on it this coming week when my husband is home for Christmas Vacation. He can play with the kids and I can quilt. I think we are going to donate this to a charity.

Snowman time.

Yesterday our snow was melting so we could finally make a snowman. The kids were excited. I also tried hanging the Christmas lights but half were brunt out. I told my husband I was just going to throw the lights away every year, because when you get them back out they never work! Dang, so frustrating. So I ran up to the store later and got more cheap-o lights. We are going to try to buy good LED lights after Christmas on the clearances.

Yes our snowman wears a cowboy hat.


My expresso machine rocks! Today I made the perfect cup of joe. Expresso coffee half caf, with steamed half and half, with French Vanilla creamer added for the flavor. MMMMM!!

Winter pictures

We got a lot of snow today. The kids went out and played for a bit. It was too powdery to make a snow man, but Gioia made a snow angel.


Luca with a Santa Hat.


Dominic decorating the tree.

Eating metal is not ok.

My son is crazy. He has a oral sensory issue, i think. He puts everything in his mouth. Think about how a baby does with putting everything in their mouth, that is him, only he is 3. *sigh* We really do have to watch him closely. He puts marbles, paper, EVERYTHING in his mouth.

So we were decorating the Christmas tree on Tuesday. He was putting the ornaments in/on his mouth. Well they are big so i didn't think anything would happen. Later I catch him EATING one. Seriously, the thin metal kind. He had broken it and was chewing the sharp shards of metal. Some how he kept from cutting his mouth. I had him swish with water and spit it out. WHAT THE HELL? Who does that? It was crunching in his mouth "grinch style". I don't think their is anything to be done. I am going to research it a bit and see if there are recommendations of types of things to get or give kids that do this. A friend of mine said she has to chew gum constantly. She needs to have her mouth working on something and she does gum. I don't really want him to chew gum all day, but I don't want him eating metal either. Good grief.

Finito!

Another Christmas project down. I am really excited, but since the person receiving it reads this blog I can not post a picture. I will post a picture after Christmas. Until then, you all can just be happy for me that I got another project done. :)

Today we are putting up our Christmas tree. My friend is coming to hang out and help. Should have some nice pictures from that.

Its a circus.

Yesterday after church Gioia was quite upset we couldn't stay and talk to Father. I told her we just saw him on Saturday at the baptism where she got to hug him and all that. Then she started saying she wanted to see the circus. We were really confused. She said Father said there was a circus. First thing I thought of was our church Fundraiser, Oktoberfest. We missed it due to being sick and there was a tent and games. I told her there was no circus and i wasn't sure what she meant. So she says, Father said there was a church circus. I realized she meant "church SERVICE". So i explained that service meant Mass. A church SERVICE. She realized her error, but was disappointed there was no circus.

Dominic last night told us he needed his mattress to eat. My dinosaur mattress, he said. Oh yes, that would be your Dinosaur PLACEMAT. Not mattress. :)

The kids. They crack me up!

Thanksgiving weekend photos

This is a great picture.
Back row: My grandmother Leota, my mom Elaine, Me
Front row: my sister Melanie, my daughter Gioia. Its 4 generations. We actually still have 5 generations. My great great Aunt Roberta is alive, but not able to make it to the baptism. I will try to take a new 5 gen. picture at Christmas.


Dominic got out of the shower and M told him to say he was a Pharaoh.



Here is Dave and Jackie with baby Luca. They are his godparents. We miss them and hope some day they can move back to Kansas. They are in New Mexico right now, Dave is military.


Gioia playing in grandma Mira's back yard.

Life doesn't get much better than this.

I am feeling really blessed today.

This weekend we went to the Inlaws for Thanksgiving. We stayed with my Mother in law and she cooked up a feast, complete with my pumpkin cheesecake for dessert. The family got to cuddle the baby. Gioia got to have a sleepover with her cousins. She is getting so big. Then we went to my brother in laws for our nephews baptism. Later on Saturday we had Luca's baptism. My mom, grandma, sister and friends came. It was very special. My friend Jackie and her husband Dave were the godparents. Later we went out for dinner at Johnny Cascones. Today the kids are playing in the first snow of the year. They are having a blast!

So I saw all of our family and some good friends this weekend. It is really awesome. I have such a great family and beautiful kids. :)

Cuteness.

Here are the new pictures of the day. I am having a lot of fun with my camera.

FINISHED!!

I am so excited. I am finished with my brothers quilt for Christmas. It is the star quilt-a-long quilt. I think I posted the finished top a long time ago. Well it is quilted and I did the binding. Thanks to my friend Mandy R. She helped me learn the easy and quick whipstitch. It worked really fast and looks nice. So I finished all the binding in just the weekend. I will take pictures tomorrow and post them. I hope he really likes it. I have to say it is the best job I have done on a quilt. I think from now on it will get a lot easier. So check back to this post for pictures of my awesomeness. :)

Birth video - Rated G - :)

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

10 year college anniversary.

Wow. When did I get old? I mean I don't feel old, but I must be. In December it will have been 10 years since I graduated from college. 1o! Holy smokes! So in honor of that, I will be putting up some cheese posts in the next week. I will start it out with a couple top ten lists.

First off. Top Ten songs of my college days.

1. Closing Time - Semisonic
Ah yes. Lucky's bar used to play this at, you guessed it, closing time.
2. Down - 311
My roommate Stephanie was dating a guy who went to school with 311. So i listened to them before they were even popular.
3. Hypnotize - Biggie Smalls
Memories of busting a move at the Outback bar. *My car go 160 - swiftly - wreck it by a new one -your crew run run run - your crew run run*
4. Why don't we get drunk and screw - Jimmy Buffett
HA HA Oh the many many nights spent at Mollys bar with my NW Aggie friends. Those cowboys could dance. *Wrangle butts drive me nuts*
5. So Much to Say - Dave Matthews Band
Gosh how I love DMB. Been to DMB concerts every chance I get. Also this reminds me of some really good friends, Chicago and some really sweet parties.
6. Shooting Star - Bad Company
This is an older song, but I will always remember we were blasting it at 2am one time when the cops came to my house. All I got was a peace disturbance ticket *that time*.
7. Watermelon Crawl - Tracy Byrd
Thursday nights at the Outback was Country night. We used to go and line dance, swing dance etc. I was quite good. The best thing I remember is my good friend Jackie (who is short) and our friend Red who is like 6'2" and they would swing. They were awesome.
8. Meet in the middle - Diamond Rio
Saw Diamond Rio in concert on campus my freshman year.
9. Intergalatic - Beastie Boys
Minnesota. Mel and I spent a summer in MN. I had an intership with a pig farm. She came with me. We lived in a camper at a campground and partied up MN for the summer. Wow. Lots went on in a short amount of time.
10. Smoke Two Joints - Sublime
Well this is my blog right? Not gonna beat around the bush. We had some fun and some run-ins with the police as well. Still crack up at this song.

Fun pictures.

Cooking with Gioia. We made chocolate sugar cookies. Cut them out into shapes and used the cookies for making ice cream sandwiches. MMM! It was great.


New Luca picture.

The wind did it.

So one of the big points of this blog are to log things about the kids. Here goes.

Lately when something happens that Gioia thinks might get her in trouble, the wind did it. The wind and air pushed Dominic down. The wind tied her shirt to the shade. We were having a lieing problem for a while, so know it has changed to stories. I am ok with it. A friend and I were talking and this is kids saying what they wished was the truth. If it is something like pushing or hurting people I let her know that the wind and air might have to have a time out. It usually stops. Otherwise we talk about what the wind could do to make it better, or fix it. Then she will usually do it herself. Gioia aka "the wind". HA HA!!

Dominic: He has this funny thing he has been doing. If he is talking to me and I am busy, or he wants me to tell him something he will shout, "Mom speak English." Only it is said, Mom speak En-ga-lish. It cracks me up.

Clearance sales.

Every year after Halloween I plan to go and get cheap costumes for my kids to use as dressup clothes. Every year I forget and its too late. NOT THIS YEAR! Oh yeah. My friend posted that she got costumes for $3.00 each at Walmart. So I went there and they were 75% off. Thats right, I got complete costumes for $1.00 each. I bought 5. DH went back later in the day and bought 8 more. We had to get 2 Ninja Turtle ones because they both wanted it. The others are going to be Christmas and Birthday gifts. So they are hid in the basement. Here is D in his Ninja Turtle outfit.

Mama backpack

So, my old diaper bag is boring to me. Also it is kind of big and bulky. The final straw was that the zipper doesn't work anymore. Perfect excuse for a new one, right? Well all the ones I like are insanely expensive. SOOO. I made my own mama backpack. It is pretty cool. I used some Michael Miller fabric. I also put a pocket on the inside with velcro. I plan on using this as a diaper bag/purse combo. Really I only carry a couple diapers, changing pad, wipes and 1 outfit for baby. Purse wise, I only carry wallet, checkbook, phone and keys. My brother gave me a little clutch purse for Christmas last year. I think I can fit most of my things in there and just throw it in this bag. It has drawstring cord to close and carry. I got the pattern from this blog. Backpack Tutorial

Scrappy Trips baby quilt

I finished it! YEAH! The story behind this quilt was that i was going to make it for Dominic. However after about 6-8 blocks I decided that i didn't like it. I wasn't enjoying making it so I stopped. Recently I found the blocks and thought, Well I have enough for a baby quilt, might as well do that. So I finished it for Luca. Now I look at it and I LOVE it. It is also the first quilt that I did binding on and the first quilt I did free motion.

It is called Scrappy Trips Around the World. Got the instructions here. http://www.quiltville.com/scrappytrips.shtml




Here is a picture of the quilting I did on it. I did a scrolling leaf pattern. You can click on the picture to see it up close. Then the back is a yellow flannel with frogs on it. Nice and soft.

More halloween stuff.

Here are a couple pictures taken on Halloween night. I love my (wig) hair! Funky mama!

Pirate and Kitty.

They look so Serious! HA HA! Not like they are ready to bust out the door to get some candy. We generally let them have a couple pieces. Then the next day or so we let them choose a few pieces to keep and the rest we give away or one year we traded it for a toy.

Happy Halloween!

I will post some pictures of the big kids later. For now. Here is your treat of the day. Luca with smiles. He is also cooing and making noises at us. It is adorable.

New camera

I got my new camera today! I am so excited!! Yesterday it was supposed to be delivered. I was home all day because I had to sign for it. It never came. So I check Fed Ex tracking and it says it will be delivered on Tuesday (today). Great. I was supposed to be gone from 10-3 today. I asked my neighbor to sign for it and a note on the door. But guess what!?! It came at 3;30pm when I was home. OH HAPPY DAY! I didn't really get a chance to use it much today. But tomorrow! Oh boy. I am going to take pictures all day.

I got this camera. CLICK HERE> I did not pay that price for it. I paid less. I got an awesome deal. I am really happy. I had 100 dollars from my birthday. DH sold a car part for about half the camera price. Anyway. We spent little out of pocket. It was present for having a baby. Isn't my hubby awesome?!! Not mothers day, but Thanks for going through all that and having our baby present.

On that baby note, we had our 6 week appointment today ( a week and 1/2 late). Luca weighed 11 lb 7 oz. I am back down to my regular weight. Got a new pair of jeans this weekend and I look awesome! Another shout out for breastfeeding and weight loss. HA HA! Also I had the most gentle, quick and comfortable Well Woman exam of my life! You know how you dread it? Well no more. It was very nice. I will go back to my midwife for this service in the future.

Date night.

Saturday night DH and I went out for date night. We went to a nice restaurant (with baby) and then afterwards we went to Whole Foods. Thats right. We went to the grocery store, BUT got to take our time looking, didn't have to chase kids and baby was asleep. NICE ONE! The kids got to do something really cool. Gioia's gymnastic teachers sponsor a Parents Night Out once a month. It was $30 for our family for 6-10pm. The kids got pizza, juice and dessert (cookie). They get to play on the gymnastic equipment. There are probably 30 different riding toys, trampoline, moonbounce, and various climbing things. When we got there at 9pm the kids did NOT want to leave. They had so much fun. I love it too, because it is Gioia's teachers so I totally trust them. Next one is Nov. 15th and I am already going to sign them up for it. Maybe next month we will do something more risque than grocery shopping. Also Dominic was excited that he was old enough to go as well. He always wants to participate when Gioia goes to gymnastics.

Then sunday all took a 3 hour nap. WOW! After that we carved pumpkins. I made homemade pizza and later we watched a movie. FUN!

Today is a lazy hang out at home day. Tomorrow we have our homeschool group. They are having a speaker talk to the older kids about internet and personal safety.

Election.

Is it over yet? Seriously. I am getting so tired of hearing about it. Most people have already made up there minds, so I can't wait for the voting to be over. Our current administration sucks balls. How is that for eloquently put? But really there is no other way to describe it except in the Jr. High foul mouth it deserves. Bush is a war mongering, money grubbing, oil wasting moron. There is more but those are the main points. This election will be historical since either a black man will be president, or there will be a woman VP. Either way will be firsts for our country.

And on the issue of oil wasting. I find it comical and a bit scary that my husband can build a totally electric car in 6 months for around $9,000 that gets around 70 miles per charge. This is with bottom of the list batteries. I mean the batteries are fine, but they are not the super cool high mileage batteries. They are reqular batteries. For around 25,000 (the cost of a new car) he could build a kick ass electric car that gets probably 300 miles per charge. So he can do this in 6 months but the car companies can't make an all electric car that is affordable. OH WAIT! SILLY ME. Yes they can. They don't want to. Our current government supports oil, so they give no incentives to try or switch over. GRR!!!

Things to do list:

I have to start cooking again. I am tired of scrounging around the kitchen at the last minute to find some food for dinner. I am getting my recipes out and starting a grocery list for some yummy goodies.

On my dinner list for this week: Cheesey Hamburger soup, Homemade Pizza, Pasta with Pepper Sauce, and Stirfry with meat and veggies. Tonight we are grilling steaks.

On my list of things to do: Finish the binding on my baby quilt. Finish Quilting my Futures so bright quilt. Baste and start on my Star Quilt. Finish my fabric storage cubes. Order the calendars for Christmas gifts. Keep looking for good deals on Christmas Cards.

I am concentrating on sewing and finishing up my things for Christmas gifts. This year I am ordering my calendars for the grandparents. I scrapbooked them calendars last year. It took lots of time that I don't have this year. Actually the cost will be pretty close to the same.

Hooray for sleep!

Night before last, Luca went to sleep on his tummy and slept for 4 hours! I was so surprised when I looked at the clock. After nursing and diaper change he slept on his side for 3 hours. Nice one! I was hoping this trend would continue and guess what. Last night was 4 hours and then I think 3 again, but I do know that I only changed his diaper twice each night and only nursed 2-3 times. Great for the sleep. Not so great for the boobs. Man, that makes them hurt. I thought they would explode. HA HA! Oh well I will take the sleep any day. He did sleep the first part of the night on his tummy again.

Later today we are going to Kaleidoscope. I am excited to take the kids there.

Having 3 kids.

I have kind of figured something out today. My routine....which is loosely that, has to change. I was getting a little frustrated because sometimes I just want to do something for 5 to 10 minutes and someone (usually the baby) won't let me. Of course there are things that can't change. For example, I have to make breakfast, lunch and dinner. But the baby likes to be held a lot. He really won't sleep in the bed or other place without me. He will sleep like a rock in the wrap or sling. He will also sleep well if I am in the bed with him. I am totally ok with this. However, that means during the day if I try to lay him down he cries. I know that this will only last a few months. Once he becomes mobile and able to be played with I have two excellent helpers for that. Also I have the challenge of homeschooling my kids. I feel like I need to do it with a little more purpose now that Gioia has turned 5. She is learning so fast and doing so great I feel like I really need to start challenging her and also make the lesson fun enough that Dominic can participate or at least listen in.

So I am going to try to do more holding baby and reading to the kids, holding baby and helping with crafts, holding baby and doing Italian, etc.. I will try to not worry about the housework until DH gets home. Then I can do it while he plays with the kids. It will be less frustrating that way. Right now, I will lay the baby down and he is asleep. I try to put away the dishes/clothes/whatever and only get a few minutes into it and baby cries.

Hark. Baby is fussing. :) Ok. Gotta go.

Dominic had a tooth pulled.

For those that don't know the whole story. Dominic had a front tooth that got chipped, cavity filled, then died and got infected.

So today was the day for them to take it out. It couldn't have gone any better. We went to our Gardner Homeschool meetup and played for a bit. My mom met us there and we went to the appointment. Gioia stayed and went home with a friend that was babysitting her.

I gave Dominic some prescription medicine that was supposed to make him drowsy, it did. He almost went to sleep on the drive there. At the dentist office they gave him NO (Laughing Gas). He was concerned at first but the mask had a thing in it that smelled like bubblegum so he liked that. I asked the assistant if he would go to sleep. She said Oh no, I doubt it. But HE DID! So he was sleep. The dentist came in and numbed his lip up. He didn't wake up. He pulled the tooth and all that. D slept through it all. I think it helped that it was a 2pm appointment so it was nap time anyway. Afterwards he woke up and got his egg (they have presents in little plastic eggs), a pudding cup to take home and his tooth.

We didn't tell him that they were pulling the tooth. I didn't reveal that until we were home and he could look in the mirror.

Luca slept the whole time in the waiting room with my mom. He woke up right when we were finished and we nursed.

All in all it was great and I would recommend Dr. Praters office to others. He is a older man and was kind of blunt the first time we were there. But since I understand his mannerism now I can appreciate that he knows what he is doing and is FAST which is excellent when you are dealing with small children.

Family Reunion.

Well my cousin Les emailed everyone a few weeks ago and said he was coming home for a visit. He is in the Air Force and has been stationed in Guam (tropical island) for the last 3 years. I volunteered to host a party here at my house on Sunday. This is my fathers side of the family (VanBelkums) and they very rarely get together. Have you heard the joke about families that only get together for weddings and funerals? Well this is us. I don't like that, especially since 90% of them live in the KC area. It is dumb that we don't get together more often.

So we had the party yesterday and it was a big success. We had a great turn out and it was really fun. They all enjoyed seeing the new baby too. The big kids entertained everyone with their antics. One of the old ladies kept telling Dominic she was gonna take him home with her. Ha ha! I put pictures of everyone up on my flickr account. I did not take these pictures FYI. My dad did. He got a new digital camera of which I am JEALOUS! It is nice. I am getting one soon.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24599218@N06/

October already.

Wow. Where did the summer go? Didn't I just announce that I was pregnant? Now I have a baby here already and the summer is history. The days just go faster each year. We are doing really well around here.

The anniversary date went great! The big kids went to play with friends for a few hours. DH, baby and I went out for a fancy dinner. We went to Tatsu French Restaurant. It was expensive, but OOHH SOO good. Plus it was an adult place. One of those places were people do not take children, of course the newborn baby is welcome. One old lady took him from my arms to hold him. DH said it probably made her evening to hold such a tiny baby. I agree. It didn't offend me. I like to share my baby snuggles with other people. The picture above is the flowers DH got me for the anniversary. Below is a picture of my one month old guy. ONE MONTH! Where did the time go!

Yearbook yourself!

This is so funny. http://www.yearbookyourself.com/

I think there is a real picture of my Aunt somewhere that looks like this. HA HA!! This picture was the 1974 picture.

8 years!

Today is our 8 year wedding anniversary! WOW!! 8 years. It does seem like we have been together forever, but when you put a number on it it seems unreal.

In those 8 years, we have lived in Kansas and Texas, lived in 3 different houses. Massimo finished college. We have 1 gorgeous daughter and 2 handsome sons. Massimo has done well with work and moved up in pay. He built an electric car. We bought 12 acres of land (that we will one day build a house on). I have become a stay at home mom, and we homeschool our kids.

If you had told me all that 8 years ago. Heck, 6 years ago, I would have thought you were crazy. I wasn't always this crunchy. Well down deep I was but I just wasn't expressing it to the world.

Chubby Baby.

Well he isn't officially chubby yet, but he gained 1 lb in 1 week. Go little buddy! I was amazed that he gained 10 oz the first week. Well the second week it was a whole pound. He is now 8lb. 1oz. Awesome.

We have been really blessed with friends coming over to play with us and bringing us food. Just having others here to play with the kids keeps them out of trouble. I have even had time to do a little sewing. I made 2 more slings and started some Christmas gifts.

More baby stuff.

Our days are consumed with baby. This is a good thing though. :) He really is an excellent baby. Friends are bringing us meals this week. That is always nice. Not having to cook dinner is excellent when you have 2 young kids and a baby. I also hired a friend of ours to clean the house. She will start Friday and come every two weeks. YEAH!!

I also found out that the baby's placenta was unusual. Basically one of the veins was in a weird spot. It has a name and only occurs in about 1% of pregnancies. It can be dangerous but luckily ours was not. It is also one of those "can't do anything about it" things. I did read that it can cause early birth and lower birth weight. Which is interesting because he was 1.5 lbs smaller than the others and 8 days early. Not really a LOW birth weight and not significantly early but it could explain the difference in him and my other two births. Neat stuff. Also glad I did not know about it during my pregnancy. I would have just worried. Now instead I am just thanking God that he is healthy and fine.

Still alive!

Well DH went back to work for half a day today and we are all still alive! Ha ha~ Actually it was an awesome day. Baby was awake for about two hours this morning and he sat in his little seat so good. I got to make breakfast, eat it AND take a shower before he started fussing for me. Thank you baby!! I just realized that makes it sound like he was in his seat for two hours. No..... :) Just off and on during that time. The bigger kids played so nice together. Then my friend and her son came and played.

This afternoon we had my 1 week checkup. So we took our first car trip. Luca just slept through it all. He got weighed and he is 7lb 1 oz. That means he gained 10 ounces in 6 days. GO BREASTMILK! I am doing great too. Check out the cheeks. :)

A regular day.

Yesterday evening was not good. The kids were BRATS! I don't like to say that but its the only word for it. Gioia was in Timeout several times. No one was listening or minding us parents. DH about freaked out. Gioia was seconds from spending the rest of the night in her room. Finally DH bundled them up in coats and hats and took them outside to RUN.

So last night we talked and tried to come up with a game plan for today. It was SOOO much better, dare I say Normal. We got up, ate breakfast and DH ran to the store. The he took them to Pump it Up, (moonbounce play place). I went back to bed with baby and slept. Then lunch and play outside. Later they watched a movie and I took another nap with baby. Then here we are at evening time. No one has been in trouble all day. Dh is gonna mow the yard and I even folded some clothes.

It sounds really boring, but when you add a family member and everyone is adjusting then boring is good. :)

Day 3.

Well the first few days are kind of a blur. We were nursing and snuggling baby. Not much sleep involved. Friday night we basically didn't sleep but a few hours. That means since Wed. night I hadn't slept but only a few hours. AHH! But thankfully my milk is here now and he can get full faster and sleep longer. Last night was half way a normal night. I still nursed him about 4-5 times but he would sleep in between.


I am fascinated by his head. When he was born it was kind of squished and you could see the bones that go across kind of sticking up. In the first 24 hours it had moved and was perfectly round. He has the most perfect head of any of my kids. He has blonde almost none existent eyebrows, light eyelashes and much lighter hair than the 1st two. I think he is going to have blue eyes as well. All those things combined with his long fingers and toes has us thinking he is taking after my side of the family a lot! He is positive with his blood type so that means I have to get that Rhogam shot. I am negative. My midwife will bring it to my home visit tonight or tomorrow.

I feel really great overall. I can't say enough good things about being home. The labor was intense but I could eat or drink. Hang out with my husband (in my underpants) and not worry about people poking and prodding me. But the very best thing is afterwards! It is awesome being home in my own comfortable bed. I can take a shower, be on my computer, watch a movie with the family, all of that! I was telling my husband that if we had a hospital birth, we would just be coming home today. Geez. I know the nurses would not have grilled me steaks yesterday, gave me a glass of wine or bought a carrot cake for the new baby's birthday.

Its a boy!

Our new son was born on September 5th at 2:24am at home in the water! He is so tiny! Only 6lb 7oz, 18 inches long. His name is Luca Jasper Perreca. He is an eaten, poopin' champ! HA HA!! We are all doing well. I feel great, just tired from having a baby in the night. The kids love him and like to look at him and hold him. My friend Kara was here for the birth, both for moral support and to help with the kids if we needed it. She took a bunch of pictures and i will post them later when I get them. The kids never even woke up! I was worried I would wake them up, but all my support people said I wasn't that loud. Also here was my midwife Cheryl and her assistant Melanie. They were great!

Something funny I wanted to write down. Dominic woke up at 5:30am and saw the lights on downstairs and came down. I told him I had a surprise and showed him the baby. Kara was holding the baby at the time. He kind of looked at him, looked around the room and picked up his new baseball glove. He said, Kara, I got a new glove! 3 year olds! Really impressed by that baby huh?! LOL! When my mom talked to him on the phone she asked if he had a new baby, he said, Yes, and KARA is here!

Dead cowboys.

My mom and sister came on Monday and the birthday celebration carried on. She got Dominic all the cowboy gear a 3 year old could ever need. Guns and holster, cowboy hat, spurs, whip, handcuffs, sheriffs badge, etc.. He and Gioia have been playing it non-stop since then. When you shoot him he falls down and sticks his tongue out. He reminds me SOOO much of my little brother. John (brother) was known to wear nothing but his holsters, boots and a smile. HA HA!

Birthday fun!

So for the big day we went to Chuck E Cheese. It was fun. We had so many tokens that we played for 3 hours. Our friends met us there and all the kids had a good time. Dominic got a baseball bat, glove, and ball. Also some animal toys, a couple new trains and some clothes.

Cooking.

So yeah, I am pregnant and cooking has been my obsession lately. I always love to cook. I especially love Occasions to cook. Like birthdays or the cooking club thing. So here are a few pictures of what we been doing with the cooking lately. Pizza Pockets and the Birthday Cake torte. Let me just say again that the birthday cake turned out F-A-B-U-LOUS! The best cake I ever made hands down. It is flourless (almost) chocolate on the bottom, mousse layer (like cheesecake) on the top, homemade whipped cream and raspberries. Its that orgasmic kind of good.

Happy Birthday Dominic! 3!

My little man is 3 today! Doesn't seem possible! I remember the day I had him. I was just re-reading the birth story I wrote about him. It really was a wonderful birth. My husband and sister were there. We had some fun too that day. My mom stayed with Gioia and they had a good time just the 2 of them for a couple days. She could have cared less that mom and dad were gone because Grandma was here. :)

He has already opened his gifts. He got new animals, new trains, baseball bat, ball and glove. Gioia also got a glove so we can all play together. Tonight we are going to Chuck E Cheese with some friends. I also made this cake. It is actually a Double Chocolate Torte. http://smittenkitchen.com/2007/08/never-too-much/

Last night when I was making it the eggs wouldn't get fluffy. You know when you are making the meringue part for the mousse? DH and I had an argument earlier in the evening so this was the last straw. I started crying. He was able to fix my egg whites for me and we finished the cake together.

So now I guess I will post a baby picture of my big guy.

More freezer food.

Now I have Taco Meat, BBQ Brisket and All Beef hot dogs/sausages in my freezer. YIPPEE. A few friends and I are doing a cooking club swap. I will get 3 freezer meals out of that. SO yeah! Also my parenting group always does a sign up and we bring meals to the new mom. So I will get some meals then as well. I am planning to save my freezer meals for the time after the baby gets here. Like that next month when DH goes back to work and I am up all night with the baby. Those DAYS! ;) Also i will probably hit Costco up for some frozen ravioli and things like that. They have the best all natural whole ingredient Ravioli. The spinach and cheese ones are my favorite. We just had the Brie Cheese and Roasted Garlic ones, they were good too!

My other goal, besides making my life easier, is to avoid spending all the money of eating out. I love to eat out, but I always feel sick when I get the bill of $50 or whatever it is for most families of 4. We don't even go to fancy places, but still 10 a person at Olive Garden, then tip maybe a glass of wine. Bang! 50 bucks. Well the wine is for DH, I am the dessert person. Everyone knows I have a giant sweet tooth. LOL!!

And now its countdown to baby!

WHEE! I can't believe the summer has zoomed by so fast! I am going to turn around twice and it will be Christmas. Geez. HA HA! Now that the family has come and gone it is the countdown to baby. 3 weeks people! This week my midwife comes for our home visit. It will be two hours and we will talk about all the birth plans, show her around the house and just get a feel for how and where we will do this thing. :) I AM SO EXCITED! Our friends came for dinner last night and brought us the big birth pool. There have been 8 babies born in that pool. That is so neat! One of them was a mom having a VBAC (vaginal birth after a c-section). One was an 11 lb baby. So there is some pretty good Karma around this pool. We plan on inflating it and doing a test run of our hose and the whole system before.

I got out my itty bitty diapers this weekend. Now I need to get out some gender neutral baby clothes, since this baby is surprise. Then we can easily grab either the boy or girl bucket of clothes in the days after he/she is born.

I made a pouch sling for baby today. I had made one previously and I sold it. So I made a second one. :)

Whirlwind week.

I have a lot of catching up to do. But I will start with a run down of our week.

The family arrived on Sunday night. They didn't get here until late so we chilled. Massimo made burgers and hotdogs (their request), veggies on the grill and salad. It was a hit! Then we drank wine and beer and talked. Monday morning we went to the Arboretum and walked the trails. They thought that was beautiful. Tuesday we went to Oceans of FUn. IT was great! The kids had a wonderful time. We stayed until they closed. Rita (Massimos aunt) said that she smiled so much she probably has new wrinkles! Wednesday we went to the plaza, did some shopping and got cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory. We also ate lunch at O'Dowds Irish Pub. It was AWESOME food. They liked the beer there too.

For food I served: Tacos one night. We had to show them how to make/eat them. They had never done it before. I made my famous chocolate cupcakes on night. Tuesday night we also had Homemade chocolate ice cream. I had farm fresh eggs, milk and butter. They loved all of it. Massimo made Brisket and beans. Then the last night I made Thai food. They loved it all. They said i should open a restaurant. That made me feel good.

When it was time to leave Federico cried and cried. He is 5 and didn't want to leave. He was having so much fun with all the cousins and toys. They are here in the USA for 4 more days then they go home. They went back to Iowa for the weekend.

I will post some pictures later. CIAO!

CH-Ch-changes.

Sing it with me. TURN AND FACE THE STRAIN. CH CH CHANGES. Ah. David Bowie. He is a special kind of weird.

Well we have lots of changes in our house coming up. My sister is moving out this weekend. She has lived with us for a year and it has actually been quite pleasant. She helps clean the house, is in class most of the time and is usually gone on the weekends. Most of the time it didn't even feel like she really lived here. She is ready to move on and get her own place again. I am glad to have been able to help her out this past year. We lived with her for 3 months when we moved back from texas. So it all comes back around.

We will have our Italian family here for 4 days. I am excited. They are in Italy and having lots of fun with everyone so far. I am glad for that.

My friend had her baby last night. I am the next one on the list! Actually another lady is overdue, so she gets to go first. Then it is me! Yippee! Gioia is REALLY hoping for a sister, but she will be happy with a boy too. It would be nice if it was a girl. I have NO problem getting all the sweet girl stuff out again. What is really cool is that I know two other families that are using the same midwife as us. We are due first so I look forward to sharing the details of how wonderful Cheryl is at our birth. I think it is going to be awesome! Our friends are coming next weekend to bring the birth pool and have dinner with us. It is a lucky pool. 7 babies have been born in it. Happy and Healthy! That is some good Karma. Oh and 1 of them was 11 lbs even. DANG!! I want nothing to do with that record. A nice 8 lbs is good with me. That is what the other two were.

Getting things ready.

The carpet cleaners are coming today to clean our gross living room carpet. I try to keep all the food in the kitchen but the kids are bad about taking things in the living room. Juice and food. Then there is the blood spot that I cleaned but didn't get it all out from Dominic's head. We sorted toys out and are giving away a sack of toys and a sack of stuffed animals.

I made a grocery list for all the food I need for our Italian guests. I have a bunch of shopping to do. We have already made the brisket, taco meat and I am going to make up some desserts when they get here. I will probably make some of my specialties like Chocolate Cream Cheese Cupcakes (with choc. chips). Also DH has ORDERED me to make homemade ice cream. I think it will be really fun and I look forward to everyone being at our house. I am gonna make DH cram Italian with me this week and start speaking it to each other at night and the kids. I think the kids will pick up so much more this time since they are home and more comfortable to listen and learn.

Pictures! I have lots of new pictures but instead of taking forever to load them on here they are on my Flickr Account. So Click here to see them. http://www.flickr.com/photos/24599218@N06/

And if you want to see the website of the lady who took the new pictures of us click here.
http://www.blessedlifephotography.com/
Click on the picture to see a slide show. We are in the slide show.

Dancing girls, Deer and other fun

Thursday we headed to my moms for the Jameson Picnic. My hometown Jameson has a small fair every year. It used to be really big with a small carnival, kids rides and all that. Now it has been reduced to a group that brings all the Moonbounces for the kids to jump in. The kids still had a great time. They have a talent show. Last year Gioia and I both sang and both won 2nd. This year Gioia danced. She did Walk the Dinosaur. She won second again and $15 prize. She was really excited. It was pretty cute because she lost a shoe during her routine, she put it back on and kept dancing! I was really proud of her. She didn't get flustered. After the shows were over they had a free drawing. Gioia won the hat in the picture. It is camo with Terry Implement (tractor store) on it, but she loves the darn thing and wears it ever waking minute.

We had a good time. Played with the new kittens. We took a ride on the Ranger. The kids got to go swimming with their cousins. I also included a picture of my moms flowers. They are really pretty. The pink ones are Mandavilla.





Friday on my way home I hit a deer. The actual situation went like this. NICE 8-10 point deer runs out in front of our car, but a little ways up. I said "WHOA. Dominic look at that Deer!" BAM! I hit the second deer and never even saw him coming. All I saw was antlers and the deer sliding across the pavement and off into the ditch. It took me a second to realize I hit it. I never slammed on my brakes and my seatbelt didn't even lock up. All this is probably pretty lucky since I am hugely pregnant. My airbag didn't come out either. I am SOO glad. Anyway, I called my mom since I was only about 20 minutes from her house. She came, called the tow truck and thanks to AAA they hauled us and our broken car all the way back to Gardner. The kids were upset because they thought the broken car meant we were staying at Grandmas house. They slept in the tow truck all the way home. The car doesn't have a lot of damage but the radiator is busted and dumped out all the fluid. So the car runs, but is not driveable until we fix that. This is what insurance is for. Crazy Deer! Scott (my sisters boyfriend) went over too look for the deer. He was right there in the grass dead. I must have killed him on impact because he was right in the ditch where he slide off the road. I am glad I killed him and didn't just hurt him really bad. If you look at the picture close he still has all the velvet on his antlers.