Sucess!

Last night (second night) He only woke up once! He slept through until 2 or 3? I am not sure exact time. He cried very briefly. I could hear DH talking to him. Then he went back to sleep. When DH got up for work at 5:15am, D woke up again. I went in and laid with him. He snuggled and went back to sleep till 6am. Then we got up.

YEAH!!! I am so excited!!! (yes, I know you *told me so* Mom)

I shouldn't be awake yet! :(

AHHH! I shouldn't even be awake yet, but I am. It is 6am, but I have been up since 5am. :( Last night we took the plunge and moved Dominic to his own bed. DH slept in there since it was the first night and I didn't want him to wake up and be scared. It didn't go so well, but was about what I expected. Baby was pissed and he screamed for me. DH sang to him, and did his best to comfort him. Gioia was on the top bunk and amazingly slept through most of the screaming. He kept asking for his nursing, but we keep telling him that nursing is night-night and we can have nursing in the morning. Poor little thing cried so hard he made himself hoarse. So when DH had to get up to go to work at 5:15am I had to take over and of course the little guy was all awake then, so we came down for breakfast. After we ate THEN we had some nursing. I am expecting him to nap about 10am or so today.

Week in Review

So last weekend we did the farm and camping thing. THen we turned around Monday morning and headed to St. Louis. We were there for 3 days, came home Thursday morning. We went to the St. Louis zoo. It is really nice. They have a penguin house that you can get super close to them and I even got splashed by one swimming. Then Wed. we went to the City Musuem. It was SOO cool. It was a little scary for the kids, but Gioia got used to it after a bit. The whole second floor is an elaborate tree house, tunnels and mazes to climb in. The kids did pretty good in the car. We all felt a little sick while we were there, but still had a good time! I have no pictures because Dominic got my camera wet and I think it is ruined. :(

Yesterday we had a baby shower for my good friends. They are having their first, a boy. He is due in about 4 weeks. Fun!! Today we are having our Attachment Parenting Spring party.

Camping trip and Shatto Milk Company

This weekend we went on a camping trip with our friends. It was a blast. We are exhausted, but it was great. Friday night my family camped by ourselves, then Sat. was the Shatto Milk Company tour, then Sat. night 5 families camped with us. It was great. Here are some photos.

Another week

Another week has practically flown by. We did our usual routine. Gioia had her last day of dance class this week. We will start her back in the fall. She had a great time. This summer we will do soccer and swim lessons. We go camping with our friends this weekend. Hopefully it will be sunny and warm. Today is the third week I have had my friends son for the day. OH MY! It is crazy having two 3 year olds in the house. I think when we are done having him for the school year, we will be finished with watching other kids. He is a great kid, but having 3 to chase under the age of 4 is insane. Think we will be waiting a while for our own #3.

Mystery shopping

Today I did my first Mystery Shopping at Whole Foods. I love whole foods, they carry everything Organic under the sun and awesome products. I had to shop in the bakery and produce sections and ask the team members a question about their section and stuff. All in secret. It was fun. I have to turn my stuff in this evening and i get reimbursed $10 worth of groceries plus 7. 75 for my time. Fun!

We watched my friends little boys last night. It was pretty fun. We ate dinner, played outside then started a movie. All the kids got along great. I said "See we can handle four." He said, "Anyone can say that on a good day. " I think he is right. :)

BUZZ!!!

We have been fighting the cradle cap, flakey scalp stuff on Dominic since he was born. At 12 months or so I used TTO (Tea Tree Oil) on it and it went away after one application. Well now it is back and his hair is too long and thick for me to treat it efficiently. SOOO>>>>>> DRUM ROLL PLEASE!!! Baby's first buzzcut!



















Gioia said "Is that our brother?" HA HA!! He does look different. Scroll down to see the pictures of him from the other day (with hair).

Horsey ride.

So we were coming home from somewhere this weekend and the neighbors were having a garage sale. I scored this for $15.00. You all remember these from childhood right?



















Gioia gets stickers in the mail from her Great grandma every week. Today she did something we been wanting to do for a long time. How great is this? Is this legal to do when she gets too loud? *just kidding*..sort of...

Planning a vacation.

Lord is there anything more stressful than planning a vacation? I mean its exciting, but its stress to find the right place to stay, what are you gonna do when you are there and all that. I guess it is more so because my kids are little and I have to find things they will like to do and not TOO much. I think we are going to go to Colorado. DH loves it and I have never been. We are trying to coordinate it so my good friend and her kids can go with us.

The sun is back and it was about upper 60's I think yesterday, maybe it hit 70. Anyway, we went to Deanna Rose farm and pet the goats. We were there an hour and the kids had a great time and played hard. Today the plan is go to the park later and I might even try to mow the yard. That would be a nice surprise for my hubby.

Friday the 13th.

Wow. Long time no posts. I can't believe its been a week already. We have been busy, but not all for the good. Last weekend was Easter and it was good. Fairly uneventful. We went to church and had a nice lunch at home. Then Gioia started barfing. I guess she had the 24 hour flu. She was back to full speed by Monday morning. Tuesday I woke up nauseous. Oh, no...I was sick as a dog all day Tuesday. It was awful. Hubby can home a little early from work to save me. I went straight to bed and didn't come out except to barf. YUCK!!! Wed. I felt better. Dominic got sick one time during the night and then he was fine come Thursday morning. Thursday I had to watch my friends son during the day, cause he has speech therapy here in town. Last night I was dead tired and just want to do NOTHING today. It has been a hard week.

So today is Friday the 13th. We are gonna call it a relaxing number 13th and just hang out all day. One nice thing did happen. My mom called and talked to me on Wed. when I was recovering and asked if I was still sick. She was offering to come help watch the kids. I should have just faked it and let her come. Ha Ha! It was nice to have her offer though.

Here is what the kids been up to lately.

Purple hair.

Massimo was out of town on business this week for 3 days. SO the kids and I went to visit my sister. We had lunch with her and grandma (my mom), then I went and got my hair done. My trendy cousin cut it for me and added some color, blonde and purple. It looks great. I love it! Then we spent the night and had a great time. Last night was moms night out. We all went for dinner and ice cream. My good friend is getting divorced and her husband is being a royal ass. Now this is not uncommon for divorcing couples, but he is going above and beyond with his jerkiness. :) Is that even a word? Well its the right word, even if its made up.

Here is a picture of my new do. Sun was in my face so please ignore the scowl! :)

Happy Aprils Fools Day!

Its April 1st. It is spring and beautiful outside! 3 friends had their babies in the last two weeks. One more is due and we are anxiously waiting her baby's arrival. What fun all these new babies! 3 were born at home. 1 was born at the birth center. Yeah for natural births!! One of the births was particularly exciting because she WANTED a home birth, but because her 1st child was a c-section she had a midwife but was going to go to the hospital. Baby had another idea. He came in 2 hours and they never went to the hospital. I am so happy she got the birth she wanted!

We went looking at trees for our yard. We didn't find anything exciting, so we are just going to keep looking and thinking about what we really want. We bought a bunch of grass seed and fertilizer for the yard instead of trees.

Gioia is going to be the flower girl in my cousins wedding in October. Sarah (the bride) brought the flower girl dress today for Gioia to try on. It is beautiful. Turns out the smallest size was a 5. Gioia is wearing size 4 right now, however, the 5 fit great. I am so glad. Here is a picture of her in it. Its a little hard to see in the picture but the dress has baby blue trim and ribbon and embroidery all over the body of it. It looks great on her.

Same old same old...

Nothing much going on. Same old Same old.. :) Yesterday we planted flowers in the front yard. Today we went and got new sand for the sandbox. That is about it. Tomorrow Gioia has Dance class. Last week was spring break so she didn't have dance and she is ready to go back. My tooth has finally stopped hurting. I go Thursday to get the crown put on. I hope he doesn't have to do too much to it, so it won't hurt again.

Nice weekend.

Yesterday my mom friends and I did a Lets Dish style cooking club at my house. It went really well. In the course of about 3 hours we had drinks of wine, snacks, and made 6 meals each. Then you freeze the meals and Voila! you have dinner for 6 evenings.

Then today we went to church. Then we went to the Dog park with the dogs and kids. It was really fun. Gioia was not being a very good listener, but she finally shaped up. ;) I also found out that my friend had her baby today! He was born at home and was 11 lbs. HOLY MOLY!! I am very excited for them though.

Night weaning. Oh my!

Well as you all probably know we are still going strong on the nursing. My son is now almost 19 months and he LOVES his "Nur-ney!" We nurse several times and day and until recently at night. I love the snuggling, but I am read to sleep better again. I have never been one of those mamas who could fall asleep while the baby is nursing. SOO... he has been showing signs of readiness for night weaning, I decided to give it a go.

It went REALLY well last night! He nursed to sleep about 8:30pm, didn't wake up until 12am. He started crying and throwing a fit (before I even said no), so I said "What is the matter?" Then he calmed down and said Nur-ney. I said, Nursing is night night. You can snuggle mommy. He stopped looked at me and made this horribly sad face, but it lasted all of 10 seconds. Then he stuck his hand down my shirt and tried to go back to sleep. It actually took him 40 minutes to get back to sleep, but he was just restless. He wasn't crying or fussing.

Then he woke up again about 2 or 3am (not sure) then again about 3:30. Each time I told him Nursing was night night. He asked at 2 but at 3:30 he didn't ask.

I finally nursed him at 5am when he was waking up. After he nursed a whole bunch he went back to sleep until 7:15.

So he went 8:30pm to 5am without nursing. Oh I did bring him his binky and he only used it during that first 40 minutes that he was trying to get to sleep. I gave him a drink of water in a sippy at 2am, because I thought he might be thirsty.

Gorilla bars..

Thats right. Gorilla bars, aka Granola bars. Gioia insists that they are "Gorilla bars" and she even corrects me when I say Granola bars. We made some today. Dh wanted me to try it with less flour, to make them more granola and less cereal bars. Uh... they taste good, but do not stick together properly. Oh well. They are yummy none the less. Gioia is also having a great time pretending she is Wendy and playing Peter Pan. She even uses the English accent and all that, calling him "Pete-ah". It is really cute. She has also been a Mouse this week.

I went to the dentist again, and he fixed my temporary crown a little more. I hope it helps it feel better. i really do NOT want to have a Root Canal.

Saturday we are having our homemade version of Lets Dish at my house. We are making 6 meals (3 meat, 3 veggie) and then we freeze them. It should be fun.

My beautiful lunch.

I made a beautiful tasty pizza. It had whole wheat crust, tomato sauce, sausage, spinach, red pepper, cheddar cheese and a delicious Garlic cheese from Whole Foods. It was so beautiful I took a picture of it! :)

Free at Last! Praise God I am free at last!

WOO HOO!! I just closed and cut up my discover card! i have carried a balance on it since 1998. How embarassing....

It has a zero balance and it is NO MORE!!! *happy dance**

Love Shrek!

This is too cute not to blog about. So Gioia is singing the song "Love Shack". It goes "Love Shrek, hhmmmm hmm Love Shrek" "Your what? Henrooo busted. Love Shrek baby Love Shrek!"

HA HA!!!

We went to Pump It Up for playtime today. It was soo fun. The kids love it and Dominic is big enough to do it himself. So that is nice for me.

Paths that cross.

I always find it interesting when you are on a path and you keep running into others on the same journey as you. It makes me wonder....are they put there to help us, for us to feel not alone, or were they there the whole time but we are just now noticing them? Case in point. Tonight we had to wait up late for a guy to come get paperwork about a car we sold them. We sold the car 2 weeks ago and my husband said it was a college kid. Turns out, it is a 17 year old. He came with his dad to get the papers and the subject got around to the fact that they are a homeschooling family. Awesome! So we had a good chat about that. We will probably run into this family again. And I knew it! I told my husband after they left, "I knew they were my people!" He just laughed. The dads name is Smoky, he had a rice pack (that he heated in my microwave) for his neck, they said they gave their other car to a family that didn't have one, Ok... you do the math.

Caterpillar Picnic

Today was a beautiful day. We had Gioias Dance class, then we just played outside all day. It was great. The kids dug in the dirt all day outside. Gioia found a caterpillar, earthworm and we saw a lot of birds.

Mean mamma!

So today we are at the Sprint store, trying to get my phone fixed. They finally tell me that they have to order a new one. Fine. It will be here Friday. UGH!! Ok...whatever. So i say Ok kids time to go. Dominic doesn't want to go. He wants to run around the Sprint store. I scoop him up and start to carry him out and he is screaming. So I jokingly say Oh I'm such a Mean Momma! Dominic replies "MEE MOMMA, MEE MOMMA!"

Then I got him to say Nice momma. And he will also say NIce Do-ah (Gioia).

My Mouf is numb....

UGH! I had to have dental work done today. An old filling out and a crown put on. All in all it wasn't that bad. For the first time ever it didn't hurt to get the numbing shots. My dentist has a little thing that vibrates when he injects you and it didn't hurt at all. Only took him a few minutes to get my old mercury filling out, and an hour total to do all the work. It was pretty good. My whole right side of my face was numb. Now the numb has wore off, it hurts! AAGHH!! :( It also hurt my pocketbook to pay for it. Dang!! I have to go back in two weeks to have the permanent crown put on.

My phone is also dead. I am not sure what happened, I suspect one of my kids. I took it in today to get it fixed. I will know more tomorrow. Its a new phone, GRRR! At least I have the warranty plan on it.

Splish, Splash I was taken a bath...

A mud bath. We had The Great Park Swap Playdate on Wed. This consisted of everyone bringing their stuff that was for sale or trade, and the rest of us going through it. I got rid of a bag of clothes and box of toys. The kids played while the moms swapped. It was great, about 15 families came. It was not so great for two kids. First our friend Riley fell in the mud puddle and soaked her pants and shoes. Then Dominic fell in whole body. He got his face muddy. His clothes were soaked. He was VERY sad. It was only about 50 outside that day. Too cold for a wet baby. He was crying for nursing and shaking. I stripped him as fast as I could and everyone found some swap clothes for him to wear and a dry diaper. Then he got his nursing and I held him the rest of the playdate. He was done playing. I felt really bad about the whole deal. They also had a port-a-potty there. Gioia decided she wanted to wait till we got home, and she did.

We got some short chapter books at the Library today. I thought we could read them before bed a few chapters every night. Gioia had other plans. We already read one 60 page book today. She wanted to do that instead of play outside. So we read the book outside while D played in the grass. :)

Here are some new beautiful pictures taken by Uncle Jay.

Driving the farm truck.

So Gioia got to drive a truck for the first time. Yeah, so what if she is only 3.5 years old. :) She went to chore and feed hay with her Uncle John. He let her sit on his lap and steer. Then when they were feeding the hay he was on the truck bed throwing hay off, while she drove alone. OK...city folks, don't have a heart attack! This is how it works. You have a stick shift pickup and you drop it into 4 Low and 1st gear. It with idle along by itself at a speedy 1 mile an hour, without giving it any gas. My dad has several times put the truck in gear when he was alone and tossed bales off, then stepped back in the truck. It is THAT fast. LOL. Anyway, Gioia thought she was the big stuff. It is really cute. Also we will ignore the fact that she is neither in a carseat or seatbelt, because they are 1 mile from home and in the field. Barring any freak tornado or lightening strike I believe she pretty safe.

What else have we done this week? Well DH started his new job. It is fine, he says, its a job. The weather has been beautiful so we are playing outside a lot. We planted some seeds for our garden. We have zucchini, carrots, okra, cucumbers, cantaloupe, peppers and green beans. We will also do tomatoes but not from seeds. Tonight is my MNO and Cooking Club. Thanks to the Lets Dish and Cooking Club, I haven't had to meal plan for 2 or 3 weeks. It is very nice!

1st cavity?

Yesterday was beautiful! It was 70 degrees, we had to go to dance class, grocery shop and then take Dominic to the dentist. I thought I saw a little cavity on his front tooth. Turns out he has 2 cavities! One on each front tooth. Needless to say I feel like a crappy mom. I feel like I let this happen, or didn't brush his teeth enough. It was also interesting because I had to call around and find a dentist that did Pediatric Dentistry. My usual dentist doesn't do it. I had no idea it was a speciality. I see why though. It is a skill to work on those wiggly, little ones. Anyway, i talked to a friend and then to my mom and they both calmed me alot. My mom had some good points that she had tons of cavities as a kid, my stepdad had none until his 30's. Everyone is just so different. I guess my little guy is going to be more prone to it that some people. My husband also brought up a good point that his teeth could be weaker because he used to grind his teeth a lot, and often. So who knows the cause. But you can bet I am going to be diligent with the brushing and flossing for the kids now. 1st cavity is not something I wanted to put in the baby book. Geez.

Well today we spent the morning at the mall. It was fun. Gioia meet a little friend. I think he was black, maybe Middle eastern as well because his mom had an accent I couldn't pinpoint. They were playing at the Children's Place (clothing store) in the hat bin. She had a big purple one on and he had a big orange one on. I wish I would have had a camera with me. It was cute. Then later he was at the Play area with us and they were inseparable. It was cute. I think he said he name was Marcel. Gioia said when we got home his name was Cella. :)

This past weekend we went to Iowa to visit our my husbands family. It was fun. The kids had a great time playing with their cousins.

My husband is still not starting his new job yet. Thank god we are still getting paid from Sprint. He was supposed to start on Feb. 19th, then it was going to be the 26th, now *sometime* this week. Damn Government! Get off your ass and finish his paperwork so we can make some money already!!

Finished painting!!

Finally we are finished painting and have the curtains hung. It looks so nice in our house now! I feel like a really family lives here, not some college kids with misc. stuff. Here are the pictures.
I had a GREAT helper.

Passport photos

Took the kids to get their Passport photos today. It was quick and painless. Now I hope the application is painless and comes back quickly as well. We have to go do it this week because DH is off work and BOTH parents have to be present in requesting the passport. This is for security reasons that one parent doesn't get a Visa and run off with the kids. I understand that completely. We had them done at Walgreens and it was 8 bucks each. No biggie.

The kids have had little colds, Gioia ran a fever last night but is feeling fine today. I hope to get some more of the painting finished today. We hung up the patio curtains yesterday and I can't wait to hang the living room curtains after the painting is done. WOO HOO! It looks so nice. Dominic did not nap yesterday, but I REALLY want him to nap today so I can paint! Or read my book and have some mommy down time. Dominic was singing this morning. He is so sweet! We are still battling his eczema but it is getting better. It is so hard to get rid of in this dry weather. It is sunny and 50's today. Gioia played outside, but got really muddy from all the melted snow.

Let's Dish!

Today myself and a group of mom friends went to Let's Dish! It is a place where you go to make meals that are freezer ready. The staff already has the ingredients cut up and ready for you. You simple follow the recipe, dump it in the freezer bag or aluminum pans and go. I paid for 8 meals, got a 9th for free with coupon, and we got free chocolate cakes for having a party of 12 or more. It was awesome! Here is the website for more info.... http://www.letsdish.com/ It took us exactly 2 hours to put all the meals together. FUN!!

Gioias new hair

You lucky people. Get to see all kinds of new things these days! New paint, new haircuts.
Here is Gioia sporting her new do!

Painting pictures.

Here is the pictures of the finished Kitchen and entryway. We hung a new light fixture in the hallway as well and it is so much brighter and nicer. BIG improvement.

Painting!! AHHH!!

Man, it always seems like jobs take way longer than you think they will. Like painting your kitchen for example. WHEW!! What a job. I finally got both coats of paint on and it looks awesome. I want to wait till I clean everything back up before I post a picture. My friend is coming on Sunday to help me paint the living room. I hope to have some of the trim work done before then, so we can paint faster. We decided to go ahead and paint the hallway, it goes all the way up. So we hired our neighbor friend to bring his extension ladder and paint it for us. He has been here two days and should get finished today. It looks nice. I will post before and after pictures later. DH is outside installing his new CD player in the car that I got him for Valentines Day. He has drove that car for a year and a half with just a radio in it. I GOT A NEW LAPTOP for Valentines Day (and early Mothers Day). It is AWESOME! I am typing on it right now. It has a high definition screen that looks like a tv. It is that clear. It is silver and has a full size keyboard on the bottom. NICE!! It is my first NEW computer. I have had computers every since I graduated college that Massimo has built me or handed down to me. This is my first offical new machine. I hope it last for lots of years. I think it will.

Hope everyone had a good Valentines Day.

Classe dedicata ai Bambini

We went to an Italian class for kids on Saturday. Apparently there are quite a few Italian speakers in the KC area, but we just never knew where to find them. This was sooo FUN!! The kids were learning their colors, body parts, counting, alphabet. They watched a cartoon in Italian and sang songs. It was just great, and guess what?? They knew how to spell Gioia's name and didn't have to ask. In fact, there is an 18 month old in the group named Gioia. How cool is that! They offer italian speaking classes that we are going to start taking. They also have meetups once or twice a month where they all practice speaking in Italian. Massimo loved all this. We both agreed that we felt right at home with all these people. My friend Diana pointed me to this group. She has taken a few classes and is going to Italy again this summer.

First picture is all the kids watching a cartoon. Second picture is Dominic having his first snack of Nutella. Nutella is a chocolate hazlenut spread that is divine, from Italy.

It's good to be King.

Last week was Homecoming at my brothers high school. He got courtwarming King. We teased him all weekend that it is good to be King. My dad let him sleep in and basically do nothing the whole day Saturday. And if you know my workhorse Dad that is REALLY saying something. :) Here is a couple cute pictures of that night. One with my parents and brother. The second is Gioia being "Queen". The real Queen let Gioia wear her tiara for the picture. I thought it was very sweet.

Big Pork does the right thing.

Wow! Just wow! I am happy to report that big business did the right thing. Remember the stay at home mom that we talked about in a previous post? Well she got 2 more letters this week. The first from The Pork Board, apologizing for the rude way they handled the intital letter. Also a second letter to her attorney, that talked about how they would also have a fundraiser for the Ohio Milk Bank to help out. Read the full story here. Yay pork, Yay breastfeeding.

On a not so happy breastfeeding note, I got to listen to my mom and my stepdad talk about how I should wean my son. :( Also my stepdad made some idiotic comment about how he was getting a "double shot" of dairy from my milk and cows milk. Dude, news flash, human milk doesn't have dairy in it unless the mother is eating dairy. Not the same thing. He went on to say if I weaned then my son could drink cows milk. Hmm.. he has ezcema that we believe is caused/aggravated by dairy. AHHH! Whatever... (and this will make you laugh. He is a farmer! :) ha ha!)

I am very unhappy with the nighttime situation. D is still nursing at night and he also kicks the crap outta me. Someone suggested that I let him sleep on my husbands side of the bed. We might try that. Make the boob a little less accessable. We also introduced the binky back at night. I hope it works cause he is driving me crazy. I really want him to self wean and he is such a mommas boy, I am afraid it will break his heart if i night wean him. I know my AP friends will understand this line of thinking.

Anna Nicole? Dead or faking it? She has a legal issue filed against her and trim spa, she is trying to keep the old mans money, she has a legal issue surrounding her baby. Her son died? Here is the other thing, she had a "private nurse" that found her, her bodyguard was the one to give her CPR and how hard would it be to pay off a coroner really? With all the crap she has been through lately, who would blame her for pulling a Biggie Smalls and vanishing. But maybe she isn't (wasn't?) that strong. Maybe she took a bunch of drugs.... Its disturbing either way.

Japenese Steakhouse

We had Moms Night Out at Hikari last night. Its a Japense Steakhouse in Overland Park. It is really good. DH and I used to go there all the time back before we were married with kids. It was great. They give you soup, small salad, meat, veggies, and rice. It is all cooked on the grill in front of you and they are very entertaining. We had a good turnout, 15 moms. That is about our normal group. We had been talking a few days ago about donuts. How many donuts could you eat if they weren't bad for you? Oh a dozen easy I said!! SO on the way to MNO last night we drove past Krisipe Kreme, I made Teri pull in and we got a dozen donuts for dessert! HA HA!! Everyone really thought it was funny! It was a big hit!

Saturday we are taking the kids to an Italian Class for preschoolers. They are going to work on learning colors and maybe numbers too? Watch an Italian cartoon and the mom doing the program will be speaking in Italian. Gioia has been picking up new words every day. It is really awesome.

DH starts a new job in a few weeks and we are excited.

National Pork Board vs. Lactivism

WHAT A BUNCH OF MORONS!!! This has me really pissed off. I understand trademark issues and copyright issues. But seriously people. The National Pork Board is trying to bully a Stay at Home Mom that made some shirts that said Boob The other white Milk. I happen to have one of these shirts and I love it! In fact, I am going to wear the damn thing pretty much 24/7 now. Here is a quote off her blog:

Now let me make one important point. I don't much care about selling the shirt. In fact, CafePress had removed it from the site before I ever even saw the letter from the law firm. It really doesn't matter to me if I ever sell it again. It's certainly not the cleverest slogan I've come up with so it's no big loss. What I'm ticked about is that rather than taking two seconds to send me a nice email to request that I remove it, they came in guns a blazin' with a lawyer crafted nasty gram that actually includes the phrase "We trust that after you have reviewed this matter, you will conclude that the better course is to promptly comply with National Pork Board's demands herein."

Man, I also have to miss the Nurse-in at Walmart this weekend. I made a bunch of newsletters and fliers for the gals to hand out. Similac is sponsoring a Nutrition seminar to teach people how to feed their babies. I could teach that "lift shirt, latch on baby. Voila!" Anyway, some of my awesome AP mommas are going to go do exactly that and hand out REAL information, that includes numbers for the Le Leche League and other info on breastfeeding.

Link: http://thelactivist.blogspot.com/

Grandma came to Dance Class.

It was Great! My mom had a wonderful time. She videotaped the girls dancing. Several of the girls asked "are you my grandma?" She said, "I can be your grandma today! " How sweet! Gioia told a couple of them, ITS MY Grandma! Bad enough she has to share her with brother, she ain't sharing her with dance class. HA HA!! Mom said she thought the teacher Miss Leigh was great. They are about the same age, both with grandkids, and they hit it off right away. Mom laughed and said it was like herding baby chickens. They went every which way, but Miss Leigh kept them in line. Then we all went out to lunch and DH joined us. He took the rest of the day off, which was good, since it was snowing. On the way home, he hit a curb and bent the tire on his car. SO tomorrow he has to get it fixed as its not driveable. Bummer. It was very slick and my mom left in the afternoon to get home before dark. My brother has been going to colleges trying out for the football team. He has a couple offers, it will be up to him where he decides to go.

Playgroup today.

Today we had a playgroup, it was really fun. Gioia and her little friend played in her room with the dollhouse and it was so cute. They had a disposable camera and were taking pictures of everyone. We have a busy week. Tomorrow is our day off, wed. is dance class and grandma is coming to watch, Thursday is Homeschool skate day, Friday is go to Grandmas for the weekend and to my brothers basketball game. Whew! We are busy. Dominic is sleeping better, I think he is cutting teeth. They aren't coming through yet, but they are puffy. Tonight we went out to get dog food and stopped to get Ice Cream. It was fun.

Babies playing together...

My babies play so nicely together now. I love it!! :) One funny thing they do is Gioia will lead Dominic around by this red sweater belt I have. She uses it as a "rope" and they will march around hanging onto it together. Also Dominic loves to mock her. She will say MINE and he says MINE. Or pretty much anything else, he tries to say it. Right now he is playing in a box we brought groceries home in. He just fits inside it. He loves the silly thing. Today we went up to Fantastic Sams to get my hair cut. I gave Gioia a sucker and Dominic a piece of candy cane and they sit perfectly still and never moved the whole time I was getting my haircut. It was a small victory for me and I told them how happy they made me to sit still like that. It really was a great moment. I love little moments like that. My stupid video camera is broken. I have to send it in for repair. SO of course I am missing all these sweet things my little man is doing now.

Last night Gioia woke in the middle of the night and cried out Daddy! I need you to snuggle me. He was more than happy to oblige. Getting a full sized matteress for her was the best thing we ever did. Seriously. This week we worked on numbers. Gioia is learning to write 3, 4 and 5. Tomorrow we might try 6 and 7. She did awesome writing number 4. 3 was kind of hard but thats ok. I had to help her with 5. No worries, she is 3.5. :) I think my mom is coming next week to sit in on Gioia's dance class. I hope she won't be too excited to see Grandma to dance. I bet she does ok.

Here is your moment of cuteness for the week.

Skating Rink

Today Gioia and I went skating for a friends 4th birthday party. It was really fun. It was Gioia's first time rollerskating and she did really well. When I finally got her to try not holding the wall she started getting the hang of it. By the time we were finished she didn't want me to hold her hand. She said "You go skate fast." :) We also found out that on the 1st Thursdays of the month they have Homeschool Days from 1-3pm. We are so there! A couple of our other homeschool friends said they will plan to come too. It will be great. Dominic stayed home with Daddy. He is too little to skate and I didn't want to chase him around the rink.

It is snowing here today. I think we have about 1-2 inches. It is the beautiful kind of snow that is fluffy and almost no wind. It just looked like a giant salt shaker sprinkling on us.

She said..

This morning Gioia said “Daddy I like your fat tummy. You drink wine and coffee just like papaw. And biscuits and gravy.” HA HA! Then he said that during the night he went in to snuggle her and when he moved over to get more comfortable she said, “Daddy don’t try to get away from me cause I love you.” What a sweetie. She was also impressing us yesterday by writting her own name and she also wrote Mom. :) Smartie pants. Dominic pulled a metal reindeer candle holder on himself and has a black eye now. Poor guy.

Today is hubby's birthday. I got him a Plasma ball and some self-corking beer bottles, for his beer making. We also had a Tiramasu our friend the chef made. It is divine! He had an interview for a new job today. He really wants it. I think its in the bag, what a nice birthday present that would be! He may not find out anything more until Monday though. He had to buy a new suit for the interview and he looked SHARP! Maybe they will hire him just cause he is good-looking. HA HA!!

Exceeding grade expectations...

Friday is my husbands birthday. The big 33. :) He actually made me a list this year, so I have a few items to choose from for gifts. I think he will like what he is getting. Today is Dance class and grocery shopping day. The Motivated Moms list is working really well. I really like it. I am feeling happier since my house looks nicer. Yesterday was vacuum the bedrooms, which also means picking up all the things on the floor and straightening up. So now the bedrooms look nice! still enjoying my new vacuum.

Dominic ate 2 small eggs and a small banana for breakfast! Wow! His new word of the day is neck. He will say it and tickle your neck.He is also getting good at signing more things. Gioia is on a peter pan kick. She has some stuffed animals that are her Lost Boys and she takes them with her and calles them her Boys. Also I would like to brag that she can do everything on the Preschool list from World Book grade expectations. We are working on the K list now. You know they had "cross the street safely" on the PRE-K list? I don't think so bob! I mean, she knows to hold hands and not cross without mom and dad, but this read like doing it independantly. I don't think 8 year olds should do it alone, forget 3-5 year olds.

Armpit babies...

I just had to laugh about this. This morning as I log onto my Attachment Parenting board I was reading some funny stuff. Since we are all AP parents pretty much everyone co-sleeps with their kids, aka...baby in the bed, aka Family Bed. I know we do and we love it. One mom is having trouble with her baby kicking her when she breastfeeds at night. So we are all giving suggestions and the conversation turns to your babies head smelling like armpit in the morning. HHA AHAA!! Some people won't understand this...but to give a mental picture. Baby is at the breast, mom puts her arm about the babies head, therefore baby ends up with his hair/top of head in moms armpit. Well by morning, you have armpit head baby. HA HA!!! TOO FUNNY! That has happened to us before. So we all hop in the shower together.

My AP families group is so awesome. We have several babies due this spring. It will be great. We take meals to the new mamas, partly so we can see the new babies you know! At least 3 of these are planned homebirths. It is really great. We have a resident Midwife in our group. I know she is doing one of the deliveries. Our cooking club is getting back on track and I think it will be a good 2007.

Today is church and then I hope to go to the Mall and find some black boots to wear under skirts or with jeans. I need some winter type dress shoes and I want boots! I have some christmas money to spend.

14 degrees

It is 14 degrees outside and expected to drop lower during the night. BRRR!!! Hubby worked from home today and the only time we got out was to take the dog to the vet for his bloodwork and meds refill. Then hubby decided to hook up his gas heater in the garage. This required shutting the house gas off (IE: the house furnace) while he does it. SO the furnace has been off for a couple hours now and it is starting to get kind of cold in here. The report is "I am almost done. " GOOD! I hope so. ;) Luckly the kids are snuggled in their beds and nice and warm.

MMM.... Girl Scout Cookies. I usually try to make sugar free deserts or baked goods with Stevia, however I make an exception for Girl Scout cookies. As my mom will say, Thin Mints especially. When I was a kid i would order my own box of thin mints and stash them away and eat them. Who am I kidding I still order my own Thin Mints. HA HA!! My daughter got her first taste of these cookies tonight and she is hooked! In fact, she was pretty pissed I only let her have one, well two if you count the one she snuck when I was on the phone.

My herbal remedy of the week Kali Mur. This stuff is awesome! I had a cold, same thing the kids have had for 2 weeks. Ugh. I was sneezing my head off, coughing, nose running like crazy. SO after 2 days of it I call my friend at the Health Store about cough medicine. She tells me that this Kali Mur is great and dries up your nose, stops the drainage, the whole bit. I took it last night, every 2 hours, by the time I went to bed my nose stopped running. This morning I had a few drips from the nose, so I took it again. Gave Dominic some cause he is still drippy. THats it DONE! My nose is healed. I have not sneezed since. BAM!! Cold is gone! SWEET!!! I had a couple coughing fits, but other than that I feel great! THANK YOU SHERRY! Oh and it cost like 4 bucks.Well worth it.

Into January..

Busy week so far. Gioia resumed her dance classes today and they did not get suckers as usual, they got stamps on their hands. Their teacher said they didn't listen well and stand on the dance line, so no suckers. 2 weeks off is alot of 3 year olds, it was like the 1st class all over again. Oh well they had fun. We are still battling colds here. The kids are mostly over it, but now I have it. Bah!

Dominic is really talking now and it is adorable. His favorite thing to say is "Me-up!" (Pick me up!) He can also say Daddy, Mommy, Do-a (Gioia), Ti-ti (kitty). Today he was reading a book to himself. He also dances and he really gets down! He will spin in a circle and clap his hands. He also signs and says "Nur-ney" (Nursing). He signs several things like book, please, and wash.

Tonight we are watching the Da Vinci Code. Good movie! It really gives a person alot to think about. I have come to realize in a very short time that things are never straight forward. Someone is always pushing their agenda, in religion, medicine, government. It is really disturbing. Sometimes I feel like I am in an old twilight zone, where all the people are kept in the dark ages cause we are too stupid to deal with reality.

Limes!

I was cooking a soup and it calls for the juice of one lime. Well Dominic says "apple!" Of course we thought it would be funny to give it to him. He LIKED IT! HA HA!! I told my husband that my little brother loved sour stuff when he was a kid, still does. Here are the pictures.

New Vacuum

My old vacuum died. We had it 6+ years. We got it as a wedding gift. SO i did my research, check consumer reports and ended up buying a Kenmore Intelli-Clean vacuum. It has this sensor that tells you when you are sucking up alot of dirt, small amounts or the area is clean. WOW! My carpet was really dirty. It looks like different carpet now. Fluffier and nicer looking. Here is the vacuum.
Next on the list to replace is the dishwasher. It still runs, but about every other load comes out with crud on the dishes and it just sucks. Of course, I feel wasteful to replace it when it still works. We are going to keep an eye out for open box items or clearance items and try to find a great deal, otherwise we will probably stick it out with this dishwasher for another year.

We went to the Nelson-Atkins art musuem on Tuesday. I forgot to post about that. It was AWESOME! I loved it. We only got to stay for about 45 mins and we saw the whole 1st floor. I thought that was pretty good with two little ones. Our homeschool group went and most of the other kids are a bit older, around 5. Hopefully we can do it again soon with DH.

Motivated Moms

Well at the suggestion of a friend, I joined this thing called Motivated Moms. I like it. It is this daily planner for the whole year that tells you what household tasks to do. Each week you have your daily chores, such as laundry, dishes, sweep kitchen, wipe off counters, feed pets, read to children etc.. Then it gives you random "tasks" to TRY to accomplish each day. For example, tuesday was vacuum the main living area/1st floor, change towels in kitchen and bathroom, clean out microwave. Then Wed. might be clean all toilets, mop kitchen, clean off master bedroom dresser and dust. I like it because instead of saying Clean the whole bathroom, it says do toilets. Instead of vacuum whole house, it says living area one day, bedrooms the next day. Of course you can do more or less. I have been circling the things I don't get done and plan to catch up over the weekend with DH's help. It was 8.00 a year to download the weekly pages. I think it will be well worth it. I hope it helps me get the house in better order.

Tonight we have MNO (Moms Night Out). We are going to Old Chicago for Pizza and beer. YEAH! I love pizza and I love beer! We also do our cooking club swap at the same time, so we come home with tasty food. We usually have about 15 moms come. Lap babies are welcome, but no other kids.

Holiday photos

Here are a few pictures of the kids enjoying their holiday loot

Crazy Holidays and Dial up connections

I guess I have really been missing in action these last two weeks. WHEW!! Where to beginning?

Christmas: For christmas week we went to my sisters house and had christmas time with my dad and family. It was a great time, but we all came down with sinus colds. Yuck! Then we were preparing to go to Iowa when we found out my sister-in-laws family (whom we were going to stay with) were all barfing with the flu. DOUBLE YUCK! We almost scrapped it all and drove home, but decided at the last minute to go to my Mother-in-laws house. We spent christmas with her and the kids still had a good time. We then came home for 3 days and took off again.

New Years: We went to my Moms house for New Years weekend. Had the annual family Christmas at Grandmas house with all the cousins. Gioia had a great time and all the toddlers are a riot. We laughed so hard. Then for New Years eve we all partied at my Moms house. It was pretty fun. Dominic fell asleep at 9:30 and Gioia made it until 11pm. Then we slept over at Grandma Leotas while the other crazy adults partied at moms until 2am. My BIL had a run in with the Jaggermeister which resulted in sharpie tattoos and many incriminating pictures to be taken of him. All in all, good times. :) We came home with half a cow and 20 lbs of deer burger. YUM!! My freezer is full.

NOw I am exhausted and am off to bed. I will post more tomorrow and some pictures of our holiday fun!

OH the agony!

I woke up Monday morning unable to move my neck. My neck and shoulder hurt so bad that I couldn't do much of anything. I went to the Chiropractor and she tried to fix me. It helped but I was still hurting Tuesday and today I am better still but a little sore. I am going back today to see Dr. Tobi again. Dominic has a small cold and is stuffy so he is not sleeping well, which means I am not sleeping well. Blah.

My friend and I cooked her 3 meals yesterday. She is pregnant and doesn't feel well or like cooking. Her husband is not a good cook. We made Stromboli, Pepper Sauce w/ pasta and Chicken Spinach Burgers. All were a success. It is more fun to do it together. She is coming with us to dance class today to watch Gioia dance.

Christmas presents

We did our family christmas this weekend. We will be at my in-laws for actual Christmas day, so we did our family gift exchange this weekend. It went really well. I think everyone got what they wanted. Kids got a train set, Gioia got a new Waldorf Baby and Dominic got a music instrument set. I got a neck pillow, clothes and new book. Massimo got his Dremel. I want to say before anyone thinks we are insane, I did not pay those prices for Gioia's baby. We bought them at a discount and made them ourselves. OHH!! And how could I forget Gioia got an art easel and long story short... I have green paint stained on my carpet. That was not in the master plan.

We had our KCAP christmas party and it went fabulous. I was worried cause the host has a smaller house, but it was almost 70 outside and so we were on the deck. The kids jumped on the trampoline and it worked out nicely.

Walmart

Walmart: You either love 'em or hate 'em. I was directed to an excellent website that discusses the evils of Walmart. http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/ I will be the first to admit that being a conscious consumer is hard work. Making sure that you try to shop only with companies that treat their workers/manufacturers well, basically support human rights issues and are good fair companies, well its hard work. It is something my husband and I have been trying to do for the last year or so. Our journey mostly started out as just shopping for natural bath and body care, this led us to smaller mom and pop or Internet shops, which led us to where we are now. I had not shopped at Walmart in well over a year, and was proud of it. Then a Walmart opened in our town. We have been there 3 times. Its convenience and NO MORE! We are renewing our vow to shop at better stores. Like HyVee, they are "employee owned" the employees at our local HyVee are so nice and helpful. The produce manager told me the other day if there is ANY organic product they don't carry and i want to tell him and he will get it. Awesome!

Unfortunately, for some people it is almost not an option to not shop at Walmart. Take my mom for example, they live in a small town. She works in a slightly bigger town and they have Walmart. They also have a good priced grocery store and I believe she gets her groceries there. But what about other household items? The grocery store carries them but at a premium. Also what about Christmas and shopping? It is basically the only store that carries kids toys and games, kids clothes, etc.. I much prefer Target but that means a drive to St. Joseph 30-60 minutes away depending on if its coming from home or work. It is such a dilemma.

Those who do have a choice in the matter however, need to snap out of the Walmart coma and start shopping other places. You don't need all the crap thats in the store. If all the people in large cities would start shopping elsewhere it would have a huge impact on the company. As for myself, my dollars may not effect their bottom line, by I am proud of myself for knowing that I am shopping smart and supporting businesses who have earned it.

P. Boo!

Dominics new word is "P BOO!" aka Peek a boo. :) He likes to play peek a boo and is so funny. He is also giving MMM UH (kisses). Tonight we had a funny display. I had a bowl of ice cream and was sharing with him. He would open his mouth and lean over to me. I would give him a bite, then he would give me a kiss MMM UH. Then he would laugh and make a stinky face! He is such a riot. Also he likes to dig in the trash. Not so cute. Tonight he grabbed a can out of there and cut his finger. I was making dinner. Putting a band-aid on a toddler is like putting a dress on a cat. Not going to happen.

Gioia woke up this morning, came out of her room and said "SHH!! I need to sleep in my bed." I said, Good morning do you wanna come downstairs? She said, "NO! SHH I need to sleep!" Slammed the door and went back to bed for 30 minutes. When she came out the second time she was nice and pleasant. HA HA!! I guess brother and I were being too loud. We rode bikes outside and went to the park today as well. It was AWESOME and in the upper 50's.

Panda Bear in my kitchen.

Gioia has been on a kick lately of wanting to "be" something. Here is a picture of her being a panda. She had to wear this to dance class last week and to Hy-Vee. She got some nice compliments on it at Hy-Vee. The rest of the week she has been a Giraffe. She has worn for 3 days straight a size too small halloween Giraffe costume. Also for your viewing pleasure a sleepy boy.

Mercury, Autism and the Global Vaccine Agenda

David Ayoub, M.D. goes through the relations of Mercury to Autism as well its connections to “National Security Study Memorandum 200”; for population control. Showing its shocking connections to today’s G.A.V.I. Are powerful forces really trying to help the poor people or could it be for another agenda; the sterilization of the poor? This is an upsetting video, so brace yourself.

Holiday fun.

We had a great weekend. We had a few families over for a dinner party. It was a great time. My sister and her husband came as well. They stayed the night, then Mel and I went and did some christmas shopping. It was good.

The holidays are in full swing for us. We have something going on every weekend of the month. A couple holiday parties, several family events and DH is taking the christmas week off from work, so we will get to spend lots of time with him.

Quote of the day

Here is the quote of the day! This sums up how the medical community treats parents on the vaccine issue.
"Pamphlet authors should determine the key points that the patient (or parent) needs to know to achieve the behavioural objectives. Nonessential concepts can then be deleted. The key is to write for the desired health behaviour, rather than for high-level knowledge."

Source: Pediatrics. 1996 Jun;97(6 Pt 1):804-10.
Parent comprehension of polio vaccine information pamphlets.
Davis TC, Bocchini JA Jr, Fredrickson D, Arnold C, Mayeaux EJ, Murphy PW, Jackson RH, Hanna N, Paterson M. page 809

Do you see what they are saying The key is to write for the desired health behaviour, not high level knowledge. AKA = tell them what will make them vaccinate, not the risks or anything knowledgable to make informed choices.

Gioia told me she has a new baby brother. It is her little purple hippo bath toy. She has been packing it around for days now. She plays with it and made it a bed. I said And Dominic he is your brother. She said, no he is my Dominic. So apparently he has been replaced.

Dominic continues to crack me up every day. Today he was playing with the toy hammer (wooden) and was gently bonking himself on the head then he would laugh and shake his head NO. Crazy man. He played and splashed in the bath today, then an hour later had a MASSIVE poop explosion and smeared lunch all over his face. Nice!

The cowgoddess strikes again.

Disturbing find of the week.

Most of you that know me well know that I research parenting issue A LOT. I want to make the right choices and the best choices for my family even if they go against the mainstream grain. Well I am reading a book published by a lady I know and it is about vaccines.

I will just highlight the points so this post doesn't get too long. You all know about SV40 right? It is the Simian Virus (monkey virus) that was in the contaminated Polio vaccines in the 50's.

Ok... Dr. Bernice Eddy found this out in the late 50's, and SV40 is cancer causing. She also discovered live virus causing paralysis in polio vaccines in 1954 and 1955. In 1955 she was relieved of her duties as Polio Vaccine Control Officer. The kept the vaccine on the market until the early 60's.

Quote:

At a medical conference in July 1998, Dr. Michael Carbone explained how SV40 swithches off a protein that protects cells from becoming malignant. This protein is not cancer-type specific, but cell-function specific."

Quote:

In October 1998, the Journal of Cancer Research suggested that the reason many cancers are now on the rise (it included only three varities, but commeneted that most others haven't been studied yet) is because SV40 is spread both sexually and from mother to child in utero. So you don't need to have received an SV40 contamintated vaccine to have been exposed to SV40. In USA, SV40 is found routinely in 23% of blood samples and 45% of sperm samples from donors.

So what that means is for those of us whos parents where born/vaccinated in the 50's. They then likely passed it on to us, which in turn I could be passing it on to my children. REALLY NICE. No wonder cancer rates are skyrocketing. I would like to know how people that vaccinate feel about this? Do you still feel that the risks outweigh the benefits??

Cottonball snowmen

So today we hosted our homeschool preschool-K group for winter craft day. We made snowmen with cottonballs and mittens decorations. It was really fun. We had 7 familys here so it was a packed house. Everyone brought muffins, snacks and food. We made crafts, read stories and played from 10am-till 1pm. The kids were great, tired and made awesome crafts. It was really fun. I am going to host an art/craft day once a month I think.

My friend and I are going to make some soap in the next few weeks to give as christmas gifts. She is going to teach me how to do it, so I can do it myself in the future. I also need to finish my other gifts for the family and DH needs to bottle his beer. We have a couple christmas parties coming up which should be fun.

Friday

This is heard in my hallway. "Little pig, little pig let me come in!!" Then the response, "not by the hair of my chinny, chin, chin." Gioia say, "then I huff and I puff..." Massimo opens the door and lets her in the bathroom with him. :) Funny family.

We got about a total of 8 inches of snow. The kids had a great time playing in it. There dad even pulled them on the sled. The baby would kick his feet for more when he stopped.

Let it snow! Let it snow!

4 inches and counting. We are expected to get as much as 1 foot of snow! Whew. Yesterday we had sleet and ice. Today the snow. It makes the roads really bad for driving. Massimo worked from home and I am glad. Gioia and Massimo went out sledding for about 10 minutes and decided it was too cold. The temperature is 12 degrees (feels like zero). BRRR!!! The craziest part is that on Tuesday it was 63 F. Kansas and Missouri have weird weather.

I am ready for Christmas! I love the holidays. I am ready for friends to come to dinner, presents to be opened, my friends Chocolate Oblivion pie I ordered (thanks Kenna!), drinks with my dad and stepmom and to take Gioia shopping for her daddy! I feel like we got the kids some really nice/good gifts this year that will get lots of use and last a long time.

Hot chocolate and Baileys Irish Creme.

So tonight after dinner I made us some Italian hot cocoa. Which is made with cocoa, whipping cream, milk and sugar. It is made thick like pudding and you can drink it or eat it with a spoon. It is sooo good. Well for MINE i added about half a shot of Baileys Irish Creme to it. MMMm...it was heaven.

I have the christmas cards done. I will probably mail them about the 1oth or so. I also think I have all my shopping done except for DH and I for each other. I am kind of excited because we actually made lists for each other and get to shop, not just already know what we are getting.

I got my hair cut and highlighted last night. I was very brave, took a risk and went to Fantastic Sams here in town. It turned out perfect. I am really pleased. I feel so much better about my appearance and self now. It is so nice. Who knew that feeling good about yourself cost 65 dollars including tip? LOL!

MM....Turkey.

Dh smoked a turkey for Thanksgiving. My dad, stepmom and brother came to dinner with us. It was really nice. We don't see them as much as we should. My husband also commented on how great of a kid Ryan is. He is so polite and acts like he genuinely likes hanging out with the family. I made Turkey Noodle soup Friday and it came out GREAT!! Soo tasty! Today we are putting up our Christmas tree and then later in the day going to our new nephews baptism. We did not go shopping on Friday. People are crazy and we really don't ever buy the "hot" items each year. We do lots of shopping online.

I'm DONE!!

Not me, Gioia. This is what she yells from the bathroom several times a day and someone comes and wipes her bottom. So today we were at playgroup and a friend was watching the children inside, the rest of the moms and kids were outside. Gioia needed to potty, did so and yelled I'M DONE!! My friend looked around, realized this meant her, and helped Gioia finish up. HA HA!! I said, thanks for doing that. My friend was like yeah I have 5 girls, no problem.

And on that note about modesty, she also stripped down at another friends house and the two little girls were running around in their birthday suits. We just laughed and the dads agreed that it was fine, as long as they quit by the teen years. HA HA!! I gotta love my Natural Family Living/AP friends, everyone is all ok with WHATEVER.

I forgot to blog yesterday, but here was the excitement. We went to Pump It Up, an inflatable jumping balloon gym. The kids loved it. D was saying Wheee! Wheee!! Meaning "that was fun, lets do it again!" It was cute. Gioia was going over this obstacle balloon, and down the slide when she kind of fell and caught herself with her left arm. She started crying and wouldn't move her arm. I knew it was dislocated because we "suspect" she has done this twice before. Each of the 2 times before we took her to the doctor they X-rayed it and said, its fine. The nurse said rotating it for the x-ray can put it back in place. SOOOO..... I asked her to stick it out. I turned it and heard POP and I FELT it pop back in. She stopped crying instantly. I said Bend it. She did and said thanks! and went back to playing! MAN! That was freaky! But now I am 100% sure that the first two times were real and the same thing happened. It was the same arm all 3 times now.

Baby talk.

My little guy is starting to talk and it is SOO cute! Today he was copying things we would do or say. First one was AHH-CHOO! I sneezed and he did it to. He would say Ah-choo and put his hand on his mouth. Then he was playing with daddy and sister and Daddy said Thank You, Dominic signed thank you and said Ank OOOH. :) PRECIOUS! He also says Apple which sounds like A poo. Hmm... all those kind of sound alike too. Funny! He does say Ball, Dog, Mama and Dadda. Oh I almost forgot he said Pappa last weekend.

Football mania.

Well the last two days have been spent with me listening to football on the radio. Saturday was Gallatin vs. South Shelby, Class 1 missouri high school football semi-finals. My brothers team Gallain Bulldogs, played their hearts out, but lost 24-27. So South Shelby will be going to the Dome to play. It is very dissappointing. The boys were pretty upset, but they had an undeafeted season and did excellent this year. We are all very proud of them. My brother has made All Conference, All District, and the radio dream team.

Today we went to church then I have listened to the Chiefs/Raiders game on the radio. For those that forgot, I have to listen to it on the radio because we don't have tv programming. The raiders have been ahead all game and now the last minute left they are losing. :( Yes, I am a raiders fan living in KC. It is a blasphemy to most people. Oh well, everyone knows I like to go against the grain. HA HA!

My hubby is home on vacation all week. It will be fun. Monday I have to get a filling done on my tooth, not fun. We are having my dad and his family here for Turkey Day. Then next Saturday is the baptism for our new nephew.

New phone.

I am getting a new phone. Sprint instead of Verizon. My number will stay the same, but I am getting a new (never been dropped, or chewed on) phone. Cool! I hope the service works as good. Since DH is a Sprint employee we get a discount and I have to take advantage of it.

Its that time of year again for holiday helpers and giving gifts. I am sending a few packages of kids shoes and clothes to a couple families and we are hoping to adopt a family for christmas.

I think I have been spending too much time on the computer lately and I can tell a difference in the kids behavior. So I am going to try to really watch my time online and try to do more crafts and stuff since we are inside so much more now.

Go BULLDOGS!

My brothers HS football team won Monday night. 39-9! They did a great job. Now they are playing this coming Saturday in the Semifinals. If/When they win ;) they will play over Thanksgiving weekend in St. Louis at the Dome for the state championship! We are all so excited. It will be a fun trip in St. Louis as we are staying Friday and Saturday, so some extra time for going around the city and sight see.

Week in review.

Well another week has past quickly. Thursday we went Letterboxing with our Homeschool group. It was 75 degrees out! It was a gorgeous day and the kids really had a good time. We found 3 boxes and could have found more if we had more time. I am glad we spent the day outside, since now it is in the 30-40's again. BRR!!

OK all I found our dream RV. Just in case you all think I am all talk, we are planning to do this next year hopefully. Sooner if I had the money, but alas it always come back to having money. Anyway, here is a look at what we are going to do. We will be doing it ourselves with a slightly different floorplan all our own, but this gives you the general idea. http://www.motorcabin.com/photos.html It is an 40ft charter bus converted into this. Standard witdth is 102" wide, (81/2 feet). I love it and can't wait to do it. We will be recycling, reusing and refurnishing a large majority of it.

What else is going on? Not much. We watched the movie Click with Adam Sandler. FUNNY and heartwarming, good flick. We were supposed to have a potluck with friends Sat. night but it got cancelled, due to sick kids. Bummer. My family is all in deer hunter mode. My dad and little brother both killed Does yesterday. Nobody else has gotten anything yet. I am sure the men are holding out for big bucks. :)

Politics.

I am so dissappointed I guess is the right word for it. Gardner voters voted to Annex the freakin property for the intermodal. I voted AGAINST IT! These idiots. You know what their campaign slogan was ??? Can Beat em. Lets Tax Em. A defeatist attitude. NIce. It was a by a huge margin too. 1100 for it and 2800 against it.

I am sure BNSF is really excited. Cause now they can build their HUGE warehouses and intermodal in Gardners backyard. And Gardner gets to pay for all the infastructure. They even have a letter from a developer saying he stop negotiations on a housing developement purchase because of the intermodal. SO it is already having a negative effect on our home prices and it isn't even built yet. DAMN IT!!

DH said, it really goes to show you that demographics are true alot of the time. Small town, intimidated by the corporate giant. He said if we were in San Fransisco or somewhere more liberal they would have said HELL NO you can't come in our town with your pollution and heavy equipment. But not Gardner. Thanks alot. Now I am seriously looking harder for that RV.

Oh and I am also sickened by the fact that Amendment 2 for Missouri looks like it is passing so far. I didn't get to vote for that one. I was against it. NOthing against anyone who might have voted for it. I just didn't like it. It goes against what I believe morally and religiously. I read the whole text in our hometown paper last week. It is very shady with loopholes that are bad. IMHO.

On an happier note, the house is in Democratic majority for the first time in 12 years. I don't usually vote for a party itself, however I think my husband is right that we just need a big change in our government and having a all house, senate and judiscial in Rep. is not a balance in the system. SO I am hoping this paves the way for better leadership. Lets all pray for the newly elected people that they will do a good job and be good people.

Another week begins.

Today we went to a friends house to work on some Christmas gifts. They are Waldorf Heavy babies, and I love it. We made them ourselves. I hope Gioia loves it. I won't post the pictures here, I will wait till christmas and post one of her with her new baby. They are weighted 2.5 lbs to feel more like a really baby. We ate lunch with our friends and played. These are some of our fellow homeschooling friends. Then the kids napped on the way home. It was great.

Tomorrow is Election Day. Everyone vote!! Gardner is voting on the Intermodal non-annexation. "I hope it passes, I hope it passes!" I also hope the Amendment 2 fails in Missouri. I read it and I don't like it. It is shady.

We took Gioia's halloween candy, let her pick 5 things, then the rest got traded in for a toy. We ended up with Lincoln Logs. She and I built a house with them. It also came with a tiny man and horse. She seems to like it. DH will be taking the said candy to work with him to dispose of. Thats it for today! Later!

Long time no blog.

Wow I really been slacking on the ol' blog lately. We have eaten WAY too much candy this week. Tomorrow we are going to trade it in for a toy. We will probably keep about 5 peices for her to have a treat this week, then all gone. We went to my brothers football game Friday night. It was AWESOME! They kicked ass 44-0, beating Princeton and winning the District title.

So we don't have tv programming. The reason is largely the commercials. BUY BUY BUY! Take Drugs for every cough and ache. Take vaccines for everything under the sun! KIDS, eat crappy sugary foods and get fat, sit on your ass and play video games all day. Its just junk and the shows on are not much better. We stick with movies. We can control content and no commercials, but we still get the entertainment value of watching a show. My mom said, Its the same as its always been. Well that may be true, but it doesn't mean our kids need more help being mindless consumers that think they NEED pizza rolls, a New expensive cars and toys or other junk.

Eating. I used to be one of those kids that LOVED to eat junk food. I wanted candy and crap all the time and as a high school and college kid I ate lots of it. Now that I have kids and have researched more healthy eating habits, we eat better than ever. As a young kid we never had sweet cereals, pop, or really any junk food of any kind. Now my mom buys all kinds of cookies, cereal, and junk for my brothers to munch on and it dawned on me.... we never had that stuff because it is extras and we were poor! Isn't it funny though? We actually ate better! I am glad we did. I still went through the natural kid phase of eating lots of it. I still have poor self control sometimes and eat that stuff. HOwever, at home we don't eat white flour, because it turns into sugar in your body and is very unhealthy for you. We ate lots of white flour at my parents house this weekend. We also only ate vegetables one time we were there and that is because I cooked them for the dinner. We ate 2 breakfasts and 3 other meals there. I also had 2 sodas and a buttload of candy!! AHH!! Sigh. It is a new week. I am going to do better and feed my family lots of veggies!!

This week I have my Moms night out. I am really looking forward to it. Also I am meeting with some friends for playgroup and to make christmas gifts.

Trick or Treat!

Halloween was a big hit! The kids had a good time. It was REALLY cold outside, so Dad and Brother went home early while Mom and Gioia went to a few more houses. Then we came home and passed out our treats to other kids. We gave out mini-Playdohs this year and they were a huge hit. I can't count how many kids ran down the sidewalk, Hey Mom I got Playdoh! :) Even the teens liked it, cause it had black and other funky colors. Here are a couple pictures for your viewing pleasure.