Holy Blog Slacker!

Holy cow. Am I am blog slacker or what? I haven't posted all week. Ok. So for the update.

4th of July went great. Dh had the day off so we went to look at a property (WE ARE NOT BUYING). It had petroleum lines running under the property. Sorry, don't want to build near that. Then swimming at our local pool. Later in the day I was getting upset because we were supposed to go to a friends farm to party, but it looked like rain and severe thunderstorms. I called and she said the party was still on. Well it worked out great. We BBQ'd, did fireworks with the kids, hung out with friends and then watch an amazing fireworks display by the host. Then the cops came, and it was an official party. Just like in college! HA HA!! No, but seriously, the neighbor called the cops but luckily the show was over just when they arrived. The host did have a permit, so it was all fine.

Then Thursday and Friday we went to visit my mom at her farm. It was great fun as always. My brothers and dad were in the hay field, baling, stacking and moving hay both days. We helped on Friday by bringing them water and sandwiches. It was really cool to see the bale wagon working. Basically, it scoops up the hay bales off the ground and a series of belts and things stack the hay on the wagon. One person runs the tractor and wagon. It is great! I wish they would have had it when I was in high school and had to help do hay. We also went on a 4 wheeler ride and went to look at the cows. We found a dead one. So we had to talk about dead cows alot with Gioia over the last few days. She wasn't really upset. The cow just looked asleep, not all gruesome or anything. She just had questions. Now she says the cow went to heaven.

Saturday was just a lazy day. We went over and visited a friend for a little bit. Today I got a new digital camera. My old one was dead, Dominic got it wet and it is no more. The new one was a display model so I got it on clearance. NICE! Here are a couple of pictures of my beautiful babies.

Its July!

I can't believe its July already. Geez. Where is the summer going? Last week we were really busy, but the rain kept us inside. Wed. we were supposed to have a playgroup/party at a park. We decided not to try to go since it was raining. Thursday a swim playgroup turned into an inside playgroup but there were cupcakes so the kids were happy. :) Friday we had knitting playgroup and it went really well. We got a baby blanket done.

Over the last week we have had 6.13 inches of rain here. Our backyard looks like a swamp. We are luckier than other folks in Kansas. Some got 20 inches and are evacuating their homes from flooding. Of course we don't live by any major rivers like they do.

Saturday DH got to spend the entire afternoon snaking the kitchen sink out. 2 snakes and 3-4 hours later he fixed it. The clog must have been somewhere all the way down in the basement pipe because he didn't reach it with the 15 foot snake. He got it with the heavy duty 25 footer though. Good grief what a mess. The upside is that we got a new dishwasher! FINALLY! My old one sucked and we have put up with it almost 3 years now. We got it on clearance and it is so AWESOME!! I actually enjoy doing the dishes.

Sunday we went on a little adventure and looked at some land for sale. The kids did good on the drive and we had fun looking. It was over in Peculiar MO. It would be about the same distance from DH's work and to Overland Park as it is now from where we live. The actually area where the land is, we really liked it. I just don't know if we are in love with the location, neighboring town, that kind of thing. We looked at one property that does have a house there already. It was great as well. Both had like 8 or 9 acres. Anyway, we aren't ready to move quite yet, probably not till next year but we want to take our time, look around and find the right spot.

School things

Today my sister moved in with us. She is going to be here for 2 months for sure. Maybe longer, depends on how long it takes her to save money and find a place she can afford. She and her husband are seperating, heading for divorce most likely. It is really sad. Anyway, we are all trying to make the best of it. It will be fun for me and the kids to have her here. She is going back to nursing school.

We went to the pool with our homeschool group today. It was great fun. We were there two hours and the kids had a blast. I think we will met there more this summer. It is just to hot to be at the park for any amount of time.

Our preschool coop is coming along. Now if we can just find somewhere to meet. It is going to start in September. I think it will run like the regular school year time. It is going to be a hands on, unschooling type setting where the kids have alot of activities and learning tools available but they learn and participate at their own speed. I think it is going to be just great.

I got tagged..

Ok so I got tagged by my friend Sarah to do a list of seven random thing about me. Hmm.. Lets see, I will try to think of interesting things.

1. I have a tongue ring, various earrings, one tattoo and I want another tattoo. I will get it, just gonna take some time and money.

2. I love to travel. Hoping to make it with the family to Italy this year, and maybe Cancun or somewhere warm next year.

3. I have a degree in Animal Science and twice I worked for corporate pig farms. (That was before my crunchy days. I could never work there now.)

4. I wish I never had to wear shoes, and I don't really care much for shaving. i do shave because my DH prefers it, otherwise I would just be hairy.

5. Every since I was little I always wanted to work with animals. I once tried to care for the following animals: Blind kitten (died), baby calf that couldn't walk (died) and a injured frog (i think it died). So maybe that wasn't my calling after all, or was I trying to fix the hopeless?

6. I love to sing. My kids love to sing. I can bust out some damn good Karoke songs. Word.

7. I love to read. Stephen King is my favorite, pretty sure I have read every book he has published, or really close to it.

The future

So gioia and I are talking about growing up. She was asking if I was going to have lots of birthdays. I said, yes until I am a really old lady. She said "I will have lots of birthdays until I am 10 then I will be a lady." "Then I will get married to my husband named Man." I asked her what she would do after she was married. She said "I would get a tongue ring!" LOL!!! Then she said, after that I would be a grandma. Funny kid!!


HA HA! ok. So perhaps I will leave this blog post going and just type what she says all day. Now she says about her brother "He is going to turn to a man. Then I will marry that man." I said you will marry him? "Yes, I am gonna marry my brother." she says. *No hunny, we don't live in Arkansas.*

TA-DA!!

My sister came to visit today. It was really fun. We went out for pizza and then swimming at the new awesome Aquatic Center in town. The kids had a great time too. She is going to be moving in with us for a couples months. She and her husband are separating. It is very sad and upsetting to us all. I haven't posted about it because it is personal and not really mine to share I guess. I have a friend who I can talk to about it and my husband of course. Mel, my sister, is going back to college to be a RN. She starts classes first of July. The kids will love having her around more, so that is a plus. We lived with her and her DH for 3 months when we moved back to KS from TX. So we definitely owe her.

Now the Ta-Da story. So like I said previously we went to eat pizza, then to the park and while we were at the park Gioia needed to pee. I took her potty, which required taking off her swimsuit and all that. No problem, we use the bathroom and go back to playing. After that we go swimming. While we are at the pool she looks at my sister and says TA-DA! AND..... pulls a marble out from inside her swimming suit. FROM HER PRIVATES! Yes, folks. The new and improved Ben-Wa-Ball. A marble! My sister about died. She came and told me, gave me the marble and we had a good laugh. She told Gioia in a serious voice, we don't put things in our privates. OK>>>> think back to where I said she peed and I noticed nothing! EEGADS!!! Marble privileges have been revoked. Putting things in her panties has been an ongoing issue, but always before she has used her underwear as a pocket. Like she would put the toy hammer in there to hold it because she didn't have a pocket. I had a friend a while back say that her daughter tried to do this very thing.

Mission accomplished

Fleas have been terminated! Our friend came and sprayed. I am so glad. We have to wait a few more days to make sure no more come back. He said we might have to spray one more time. Hopefully they are dead.

This weekend has been crazy busy so far. We had a preschool soccer playdate this morning. We attempted to get the kids to play soccer. They did pretty good. Then we went to KC, MO to pick up some old vintage windows. I am going to use them to make doors for a china cabinet. It is going to look awesome. I got 6 for $60 bucks. Whatever i don't use I will re-sell or give away. Then we rushed home to babysit for my friends boys. They were here for 5 hours. It was pretty good. Dominic was so tired that he crashed and went to bed at 7pm.

Tomorrow is Fathers Day and I am a little bummed because the gift I ordered for DH didn't come yet. It should be here Monday or Tuesday. He is being understanding. I think he will be excited when he gets it. I am not telling him what it is. The kids got him a card and we will make it a relaxing day.

Massimo went to an auction today and bought me a sewing machine for $1.00. WOW! It was an estate sale and this lady had tons of crap he said. Weirdest of all was a huge collection of porcelain puppets. The marionette kind with strings. I guess maybe she made dolls since there were doll parts new in boxes. So tomorrow we will try the machine out and see if it actually works, which I think it will.

Farmers Market

I love Farmers Market. Dominic and I went yesterday while Gioia was at Bible School. It was great! We got broccoli, lettuce, tomatoes, corn on the cob, watermelon, peaches, blueberries and zucchini. DELICIOUS! We went to the one in Overland Park. There is one in Olathe too that I need to try and one right next door to DH's work.

I have a few tiny tomatoes on my plants and some zucchini coming on. I am excited. I can't wait to make fresh salsa. We had BLT's last night and they were great.

We got the screen replaced in the patio door. Ran a bunch of errands this week. So today we are just hanging out. We tried to go get free ice cream last night but the line was 30 minutes or more wait, so we skipped it. It isn't worth saving $5.00 for that kind of wait, especially with kids.

THE BUMMER: FLEAS! I have fleas in my basement living room. YUCK! ICCKY! I itch just thinking about it. So I called my friends husband and he is coming either tonight or in the morning to spray the house and yard. Man it sucks to have something like that in the house.

Crash!

Dominics smooth move of the day was pulling the sewing machine over on his head. OUCH! We are talking the sewing machine that is built into the table, so the whole thing went over on him. He only got a little surface scratch on his head. It could have been so much worse.

Gioia is Dee Dee a "spotty dog" aka Dalmatian. She has asked everyone at Bible school to call her Dee Dee a well. It was really weird to hear them all calling her that when I went to pick her up. HAHA! She informed me that she wanted to stay at Bible School forever. :) Well we talked about how bible school was only for a week, and then we would get to go again next summer. Glad she likes it. Whats not to like? Yesterday they had M&M cookies for a snack at 10am. Nice. She didn't eat very much lunch. So i asked her teachers today if they were doing only cookies or what. They said the kids got to choose, and crackers and other things were a choice. I asked if they could try to direct her choice to something like the crackers or raisins. So today she said she had raisins, nuts and M&M's. *SIGH* Oh well. I am guessing it was actually some kind of trail mix stuff. She still ate a good lunch so I am not going to worry about it.

Vacation Bible School

This week Gioia is going to Vacation Bible School at our church. It is from 9-11:30 every day. It was really weird, but nice to have that time with just Dominic and I. We made a meatloaf, homemade mac and cheese, and cookies! Gioia had a great time at bible school. They sang songs, colored pictures and all that stuff.

I am working on steam cleaning the carpets. Got one living room and under the kitchen table done this weekend. Also got my wallpaper in the mail today. Yippee! So DH and I have to hang it this weekend. I have already painted 3 walls in the bathroom, the wallpaper will go on the 4th wall. I can't wait to have it finished.

We are also signing up to take Italian Classes for 7 weeks. It will be on Sundays and I am really looking forward to it. I hope this is the big busy DH and I need to get to speaking it more fluently and using it at home. We worked tonight on brushing up on our verbs and basic words and phrases. The classes start the 24th. SO I am hoping in the next two weeks we can work each night on brushing up and speaking with each other so we can fall right into the class.

Stress.

Well this week has been very stressful. Had lots of things going on with our extended family this week, both my husbands side and mine. Family stuff is very stressful. I noticed yesterday that the kids were acting up, especially in the evening when they were tired and DH just got home. I really think they were picking up on all the tension going around. SO today we decided to get out of our funk and have a great day. It was cool all day, started in the 50's early morning and got into the 70's at the highest. We ran errands, got some lunch, went to the park for 2 hours, and then came home. The kids took 2 hour naps, I printed pictures off and put them in albums. It was just what we needed. We had a nice dinner at home, then went to the mall. Both kids got new flip-flop sandals and we got Dairy Queen ice cream. Then we played at the mall until 9pm. The kids made some little friends, it was cute. D fell asleep on the way home, and Gioia went right to bed too. I am going to bed now as well. My goal for tomorrow is to keep my mind busy with positive things and have a fun weekend with my hubby and kids.

Oh hubby and baby got haircuts today too. We shaved D's head again and he looks so damn cute! Gioia and I also worked on an Addition Math workbook. She is getting it pretty good. She wasn't as interested as I thought she would be but it was neat to see her catching on and learning it. We only did one page.

Cave pictures and more

Well I have a few of our vacation pictures back. Here is a group picture in Jacobs Cave.














Picture of the Soda straws, that form Stalactites.













Playing at the Beach at Lake of the Ozarks State Park.

Homeschooling workbooks.

Today I decided to get the letters and numbers workbooks out again for Gioia. She has always loved doing them, but she is a bit of a perfectionist and would get frustrated and say she couldn't do it. Well we have reached a turning point! Today she would tell me to close my eyes and she would write her letters. Then I would open them and see how she did. After several pages of that, I said I would do the dishes and when she was done to tell me and I would look. This was fine and she is on the 9th page of her workbook. She wants to just keep going and do more pages. That is fine with me! She may finish the whole book today. LOL!

I am going to start her on the addition book as well. It is sums up to 6, then sums up to 10. I know she can do those. It also has pictures, so you can count the physical things and find your answer. Perfect for her age. Its says 1st grade book. She is 4. Yeah, I guess I am bragging a bit. Honestly, though I find it amazing and cool how she learns all this on her own or with everyday guidance from her parents.

Rafts and Rock Shrimp

We just got back from vacation today. We left on Sunday and got back today Friday. Had no Internet service and no cell phones while camping. So we really were AWAY from it all. :) We hit the road with our friends on Sunday and stopped at Jacobs Cave near Gravois Mills, MO. http://www.jacobscave.com/ Then we had lunch and finished driving to Tan-tar-a Resort. We had our own cabin/apartment type thing, it was nice. It had 2 double beds and a fold out couch. We went and watched some fireworks that night and just hung out. Monday (memorial Day) we went to the Timber Falls Waterpark. The kids LOVED it, and so did the adults. The big bucket would dump every 2 minutes and Dominic would say "WOOO" every time it spilled, even when he wasn't under it. Then that night we went to eat at a place called the Happy Fisherman. It was great local place and they served Rock Shrimp. I had never seen or eaten a rock shrimp before. They have a hard shell like a lobster and taste more lobster like than regular shrimp. I love them. Here is a picture of them. http://www.mbl.edu/marine_org/flescher/images/flescher/Hi/568.JPG

Tuesday we went to Lake of the Ozarks state park. It has some really cool trails. We started out on one trail and were having a great time, when we all noticed we were getting covered with ticks. RRRRTTT!!! *hear the tires screeching?* STOP! GO BACK! So we played at the beach instead, the kids got all wet and dirty. It was great fun. Later my friend watched all the kids at the hotel while Hubby and I went on a date! We rode Go-karts, played mini golf and shopped a little.

Wednesday we started our second half of our trip. We went to Bridal Cave, it was neat, but I think we all enjoyed Jacobs Cave more. Jacobs was longer and easier for the kids, plus the tour guide was better. After the cave tour, we went to camp. Our original plan was to camp the entire week, but rain forecast had us change plans to half hotel and half camping. We got to camp and set up. It was perfect and almost no one was there camping. The campground was large and beautiful and there was a little creek with about 12 inches of water in it. It was perfect and clear and cold. The kids played in it for two days! We stayed here Niangua River Oasis Thursday we did a float trip in a raft. A raft does not steer as well as a canoe so we had a bit of trouble with it. However, it was a good choice with all the kids. Dominic cried a bit cause he didn't like his life jacket. We went 7 miles and it was really fun. Lincoln (my friends son) fell out of the boat when we crashed into some brush on the the side of the water. His mama jumped out to get him and he was fine. He did a great job of not panicking and he grabbed a tree branch. His eyes were big as saucers and we were all scared for a minute. The river was not very deep and I don't think it ever was over any of the adults heads (5 foot) at any point.

Then Friday we woke up and busted our butts to pack up in the sprinkling rain so we could come home. I guess here in KC we got like 5 inches of rain. We got a few short showers at the hotel various times and NO rain what-so-ever during our camping, except during packing. So all in all it was fabulous and great fun for our friends to be with us.

We saw so much wildlife! Turtles galore while floating the river and otters and beavers. Then the first night at camp we heard this noise, I thought it was a coon, turns out to be a skunk! I was freaked out. I didn't want it to spray us. So I laid back down in the tent and waited for it to leave. Then about 20 minutes later a raccoon did come and dig in the trash. We scared it off and put the trash away. The second night that damn skunk came back. Making this crazy chittering sound and looking for food. We also saw deer, birds, crawfish in the creek, I caught a big frog tadpole at the river and OH THE BEST!!! Gioia had a leach stuck to her ankle during the float trip! EWWW!! She was calm and my DH removed it.

Whew.... I am tired. Going to bed to rest from my vacation! Pictures later.

Lets see, what has been going on this week? Well Sunday we went to my Dad's for a visit. It was nice. The kids played and the adults talked. We cooked on the grill. Dad gave me a camping stove, double burner, never been used. Sweet! I am excited to use it on our vacation. Speaking of vacation, it is supposed to be next week. Camping in Missouri. Guess what??? The weather is calling for rain all week! DAMN IT!! Rain Rain go away!

Gas prices! DOUBLE DAMN IT! This is freakin ridiculous. We are seriously going to have to get cracking on a grease car or whatever. I mean, it was $3.36 here last night. I hear it is going up for the weekend. OH JOY! This is the main reason we aren't going to Colorado right now. But they also say Corn prices are going up because of all the E-85 being sold. I think that is great. I feel like calling my Stepdad and saying PLANT CORN! ha ha! Now i just need a car that runs on it.

Gioia is having a great time with her new found computer skills. She plays for a while each day. She has a couple websites she can do now. Dominic is talking a mile a minute. He repeats any and all words. Luckly no bad words yet. :)

I am back to using my 35mm Camera because my digital is toast. We got it working after the kids got it wet, but the pictures it takes are all crappy and grainy. :( So anyway, hopefully I will post new pictures after our vacation.

Oh my head...

So Blues Traveler kicked ass last night. But I drank too much. So did my friend. We had to leave early because of it, so we didn't get to see the entire show. But oh well, it was still fun. My mom was here and helped me with the kids this morning. Then we she got ready to leave, my daughter wanted to go with Grandma. We ended up letting her go and she will meet us tomorrow afternoon to give her back. It is always fun at Grandmas house! I was supposed to babysit for a friend this afternoon, but they canceled because of not feeling well. That actually worked to my advantage. I am reminded that I am too old and it hurts to drink too much. Ugh!

Anyway, DH mowed and weedeat the lawn today. Looks really nice. I mustered up the energy to make a Quiche for my friends and some pumpkin muffins for them and us as well. They made it home with their new baby Keegan and they are just the cutest new family. Baby is beautiful!

Blues Traveler

I am really excited. My hubby and I get to go see Blues Traveler in concert tonight. I have always wanted to see them. Our friend got us free tickets! How cool is that?! Here is one of my favorite songs of theirs. http://youtube.com/watch?v=iO5GNbx918k I love it when he rocks on the harmonica. Sweet! My mom is coming to stay all night and watch the kids. So that will be really nice. My friend and her new boyfriend are coming with us. We haven't met him yet, but I have been told he is awesome. ;)

Here is another song for your listening pleasure. Along with a funny story. http://youtube.com/watch?v=sHzdoxlNvNQ
When I was in college, we had a friend nicknamed House (because he was big as a house). He would do a rockin' John Popper impression. He would wail and sing during the rap part of this song. It was totally awesome and I will ALWAYS remember that when this song comes on.

Graduation! Congrats Colt!

My brother Colt graduated from High School yesterday. He is the last of us. My moms baby, her fourth child. Come august her and my dad will be home alone! AHHH! Ha ha! I think they are ready for it in a way. I am not sure what my mom will do. She has always been active in our sporting events, school plays, MOB squad, and any other parenting duty under the sun. Anyway, colt got over $5000 a semester in scholarships and loans. He graduated in the honor society, A+ programs, and several other awards. He also already has 17 hours of college credit. That is a whole semester already complete. That is awesome. He is going Pre-med and is on the football team at Mo Western in St. Joseph Mo. He is also rooming with a friend from high school who is also on the football team. He is off to a great start and we are all SUPER proud of him.

Will post picture later. My camera is toast. :(

Learning new things

Well Dominic has learned to sleep in his own bed. It is really great. We are all enjoying more sleep and more bed space. He is also talking up a storm. Repeats everything we say to him. Gioia had a new learning experience yesterday. She learning how to use the mouse pad on the computer. So now she can play her word games online. She loves this website. www.starfall.com It is learning letter sounds and how to read. She still works on the letter sounds. I might let her try the reading stuff soon. I was really amazed that she could figure out the mouse and do it so well. Now she can play letter games when I need her to do something quiet during rest time or when i am making dinner, etc.

I am gearing up for our big camping trip to Colorado. We are so excited. I am going to a camping store today hopefully. They have surplus camping things from Coleman and I am getting new sleeping bags and hand and feet warmer things. Maybe a camp heater if they have one for a great price.

Delivery day

I got two packages today. One, Gioia's new carseat! She likes it, I love it. Now we get to test it out this weekend when we go to Grandma's house. It is about a 2 hour drive. I think it will go fine. Second package was my video camera. FINALLY it is fixed. I am so excited to video tape all the things Dominic has been doing. I have missed a lot of things since it has been broken for about 6 months. Well anyway. It was cool to get all my deliveries today. Fed ex came to my house twice. Doesn't seem very well organized to have 2 separate trucks have to come to my house. Whatever! That is why they charge so much i guess. Geez!

Also had to order 2 new tires for our Durango today. Upon further research we found out, guess what? Our current tires are crap and people have lots of bad reviews for them. DH has patched tons of punctures and leaks in them, and now one is got a slipped belt. So we are getting some Michelin tires that are rated 5 stars by customer reviews and Costco carries them and puts them on for free. Free lifetime rotation and balance and stem replacement, etc...
Hopefully they will last a really long time.

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!