Christmas Rewind

Figured I'd take a minute to recap this years Christmas festivities,
Christmas eve morning we baked cookies, decorated our tree since Christopher prevented us from putting ornaments on any sooner. That evening we went to my parents house for our traditional fish dinner and at 6pm we rang in Italian Christmas (usually my dad is in Italy for the holiday, and they're 6 hours ahead, so we usually call him and then have the kids open the gifts from the grandparents while we're on the phone).
We were supposed to go to midnight mass since Anthony was scheduled to serve, but he'd been complaining of stomach problems all day and we didn't want to push him since he would have to be kneeling for such a long time, and the heat and incense in the church would of definitely made him barf.
We put the kids to bed and got everything set up.
Christmas morning the kids were up bright and early and we ran downstairs (well they ran, I stumbled LOL) to open gifts.
The kids were all very happy, the big hits were Anthony's Ipod, Matthews remote controlled helicopter and Christophers Little Einstein Rocket Ship...they also got a bunch of odds and ends, including clothes, socks and chocolates, and the BIG family gift this year was Guitar Hero world tour, with the complete set, so we got drums and a microphone in addition to the guitar...lots of bad karaoke coming soon I'm sure.
The boys went to 10am mass and I spent the whole morning cooking. At 1pm our company came and we had a great time and lots of great food.
Now I just need to finish getting my house back in order....which probably won't happen till the kids are back in school on the 4th.

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

The pictures are in....

Since I never got the online code I wasn't able to share sooner. These are the pics taken December 4th...Bella w 5 weeks old and very serious.

Severe Pumpkin Exhaustion......

Oh wow, I'm beat....This morning we went on our annual trip to the local pumpkin/apple orchard..and it was absolutely exhausting.
The kids had a great time, and so did we, so all in all it was worth it. Christopher was totally into it this year, and gave me a hard time with pictures, but he was too busy having fun. We got a big bag of apples and got 3 nearly perfect pumpkins to carve, so that should be a fun activity we'll do in the next few weeks.
The boys had a blast in the bouncy houses, go karts and this rock rolling thing...but Anthony got in trouble in the Haunted House and lost his ride privileges....oh the temper on that kid.
I did lots of walking so that will hopefully help move things along. Yesterday the baby was transverse again, but on the ride home today it felt like she moved back in position....we will see.
Next appointment is on Tuesday.
Ok off to enjoy my boys on this beautiful fall day.

And then there was a wedding.............

This past weekend has been an adventure....
Friday night we had the rehearsal for Sister in Law's wedding....the boys were great and then at the dinner got a little wild (there was a game room) but Christopher cooperated and the other two were pretty good. But of course.......then came Saturday.
The day started out with pouring rain......then it stopped, so Matthew went to his soccer game (they won 4-0) then the rain started again....as we contemplated getting the boys dressed all the saw was torrential rain.....oh boy......
Got ready, got the boys ready and the rain finally stopped...the weather was actually warm (close to 70 degrees).
Got to the place and the sky cleared up, as the ceremony was set to begin...guess what???
The Sun came out....it was unbelievable and totally beautiful.
I started having some contractions while we waited for the bride and of course was fearing breaking my water right then and there.....thank God nothing happened.
Christopher managed to have a meltdown while waiting to march down the isle, so Dh ended up carrying him, and the other 2 rushed down (ok basically ran) but were good through the rest of the ceremony, took pictures and then went home with Grandma.
The reception was beautiful and it was so nice to catch up with family we haven't seen in a while...so a good time was had by all and Sister in law is finally hitched. (I'm sure my in laws are relieved) LOL.

Pumpkins and Apples and kids....oh my

So today since it was such a beautiful day out, DH and I decided to brave it and take the boys for our annual Pumpkin/Apple picking trip up in the country!
The 40 minute ride up was already disastrous between the "are we there yet" and the "he's kicking me in the head" joined by the "I thirsty, I drink Water" and the "my goldfish.."
We finally got there and the parking lot was half full. Paid for our bag of apples and discovered they were out of wagons (not a good sign).
The hayride was fine and then we were off to find our apples. Matthew requested that this year we only get "green" ones and the other 2 agreed, so Granny Smith here we come.
After a little walking and branch tugging we managed to fill our bag and move on to the rest of the adventure.
4 hours later and plenty of bouncing, running and riding later we headed home. I must admit that our adventure was successful and we will be heading back again next year.This year Christopher was not very cooperative with the picture taking, so we didn't get any good shots, but we did manage to bring home 3 nice pumpkins that we will be carving as we get closer to Halloween.

Good Things for today...........

I have decided to post a positive blog...just cause it's soo pretty out!

• Christopher learned how to say "Apple" and "go" over the weekend
• Davide just got us floor seats to the Bon jovi Concert at the garden in July
• We booked Foxwoods for July cause we're going to see Bo Bice again.
• 4 more work days till Spring Break!!!
• Anthony's team tied 2-2 against the other "kick butt" team.
• Matthew is excited about starting t-ball
• I got to see my friend who I haven't see since 1994 yesterday!

ok back to work and grading tests and finishing report cards..........it was nice to take a positive break.

The Poops are Finally Gone!

After 7 days of torture, Christopher is finally back to normal!
my poor munchkin, he looks soo thin.
And of course, yesterday I took Anthony to the doctor for his sore throat and it turned out to be strep, and while we were in the waiting room Chris hit one of the chairs and got a big shiner!
Can't win...

but as of today, we're all back to school and work and all is well!
In the midst of it all we managed to get outside and take some pics cause it's been soo nice! Finally some spring weather.