VBS 2012

We did it!  This week we had VBS at church.  My friend Angela & I taught together and neither of us had ever done it before.  None of our kids were old enough to go, but since we taught they have a special curriculum for the teachers' kids.  We were both a little overwhelmed before it all started, but thank God we did it and without any major disasters.  We had to be there every morning w/ all our kids at 8:30.  It kind of made me laugh as I wonder what the parents thought when they came to drop off their kids in our room and saw all our kids, babies & double strollers.  I felt like between the 2 of us we had our own VBS class!  One of Annalisa's favorite parts was when the 4 big girls got to hold hands and walk to class every morning.  I can't believe I'm calling my little Daniela a big girl :(

She's here...baby sister Gemma Perut! It's only 4 months later, but that's ok. She went to the Dr. yesterday for her 4m check up and she's pretty big...15 lbs and I forgot how many ounces. She's not doing much but EATING (can you tell) and she rolled over for the first time a couple weeks ago.

"family picture"

Annalisa called me and said, "Mommy can you come take a picture of us. This is our family picture". She is the mommy, Daniela is the nonna (although they often fight about these titles), and these are their daughters (from L to R):
Andrea, Libby, Ella, Flowery, Drowsy, Alice, & Elena (not pictured are Belle, Sydney, & Antonella).

Happy 4th Birthday!

Happy 4th Birthday, Annalisa. She turned 4 last week, and I can't believe it. One of the highlights was Mamie coming to take her to get her ears pierced. I think she has shown them to everyone. She chose cute little Hello Kitty earrings and is very proud of them.
Another highlight was her princess dress up party. I had so much fun planning fun activities and doing a variety of crafts for it. We painted nails, got tattoos, played "pin the crown on the princess", decorated wands and crowns, and broke a pinata. It was so much fun, and I truly enjoyed it. Often I feel stressed while "playing hostess" that it is hard for me relax, but praise God this time was different. I even woke up in the night and found myself reminiscing over all the fun.
Annalisa-you are getting so big. You are such a good big sister and a huge help to me. You play well w/ Daniela and entertain her a lot. Some of your favorite things to do are play "mommy" with her, play in your bed together, and "read" books to her. You like to read her the Bible and you make me smile as you tell her God is faithful and powerful and is coming back to take His people. I know you are excited about your newest baby sister coming in a couple months although I'm not too sure Daniela is :)

It worked!!!!!!!!!!

So last year I had the great idea to plant a couple cucumber plants b/c we like cucumbers. I asked Massy about it and he kinda got into it. I just wanted to throw the plants in 1 of the flower beds and be done with it, but he had other ideas. He dug up a lot about 4x8 (about the size of a twin bed), built a raised bed, and bought quite a few plants.
Guess what....nothing came up. We planted too late:(
After talking to quite a few friends who have gardens, (I never knew until recently all these people have gardens. Every time I mention it I feel like somebody chimes in and tells me they have one too--who would have known?) we weren't ready to give up and decided to try it again this year. After asking 100's of questions to some friends...we followed all the right steps and what do you know???
This evening Massy sent Annalisa in to bring me the first tomato. I have to admit I'm a little surprised but also excited. We also tried cucumbers, strawberries (Annalisa & Daniela each have one), oregano, parsley, 2 types of cucumbers and basil.

Old News

So yes, this is old news but as you can see I'm way behind. Daniela has been "mobile" for over a month now. It started with the army crawl but this past week she's been doing a little of a "regular" crawl too. She's also been pulling up every opportunity she gets. They moved her into the "crawler" room at church b/c she is all over the place and into everything. I don't remember Annalisa getting into as much trouble as Daniela. However, that could be because I didn't mind as much because I was just glad that I could finally put her down w/o crying. It's been the opposite with Daniela because so far she's been a really good and quiet baby (despite a rough 1st couple weeks). Annalisa helps with that too. She is so good at entertaining her and always wants to play with her. Watching the 2 of them is a lot of fun.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Annalisa!

She turned 3 almost a month ago. I can' t believe it. It was a very simple but fun "ladybug" party. We had pizza and cupcakes at the park down the street. My parents (Mamie & Papa Bill) came in for a long weekend, which made it extra special. HAPPY 3RD BIRTHDAY, BABY GIRL! Time is passing way too fast. Speaking of time passing too fast--Daniela is crawling and moving around everywhere and is even pulling up to a standing position. Ughh!

Thanks for the meals!

Shortly after Daniela was born several friends from church brought us meals. It was WONDERFUL. We had meals for a few week. Below are some pics from some of the friends that came to play (there were several others but I didn't think to take pictures--sorry!)Annalisa & Mia playing babies.

Audrey & Annalisa in the jeep.
Annalisa is SLOWLY learning what steer means, but sooner or later she'll get it. Right now it's safer for her to be a passenger and let someone else drive.

Annalisa, Hunter, & Ty in the sandbox.

Memorial City Mall

We met Hughes and Jenny at the mall yesterday. So much fun. Audrey, Annalisa, & Ryder really enjoyed going down the slide together. Audrey even put both of them in her lap. I'm sad the middle picture is so blurry b/c all three of them were looking at the camera so it could have been a great picture. Oh well! I'm not a perfectionist, Hughes so I'll just post it anyway and saw who cares :)

Happy Late Mother's Day

iDaniela at the Greek Festival
Annalisa w/ her baby doll, "Jeremiah" and her very own tub of wipes or "pulisci babies" that Mamie brought her. She LOVES wipes and used at least 25 in 10 minutes.
Papa Bill (grandpa), Massy, Daniela taking a walk by the lake.
Mother's Day lunch at a little cafe in old town Katy

Yes, it's been a while since I've blogged but my excuse is that my New Year's resolution to do 1 per month was for 2009 and not 2010. At any rate, we've been busy and having fun. Daniela will be 4m old tomorrow and found her toes this week. This evening we went on a walk and she even figured out how to get them in her mouth. Not only does she suck her toes, but we think she's also going to be a thumb sucker. It's the cutest thing to see her suck her little thumb. I think Massy has a video of it on utube somewhere. Annalisa was sick last week w/ a fever of 103. We took her to the doctor and they thought it was a bladder infection so put her on antibiotics, but it turned out it wasn't . I guess it was just a virus. I do have to say I was a little worried b/c thank God neither of our kids get sick much. I think that may have been the first fever Annalisa has had in the last 12 months.
My parents also came to visit weeekend. Annalisa, Daniela, my mom, and I celebrated a belated mother's day at a cute little cafe in downtown Katy. We also went to the Greek festival and had delicious food and Mamie ("grandma") of course let Annalisa go on a few rides. Her favorite was the big slide that she went on 5 times and even climbed all the way up by herself.

Nonna Bibi

Surprise! Massy's 82 year old grandma came from Italy to see us over spring break. Massy knew his parents were coming but did not know about Nonna Luciana. His mom called a couple months back and asked what I thought. Of course I said sure and what do you know she came. She had never even been on a plane until a couple years back when she went to Paris w/ some friends. I think that was also her first time even out of the country. After that, she got over her fear and decided to make the trip all the way here to see him and of course meet Daniela. Who would have ever guessed?

Daniela is here!

Annalisa is a big sister! Daniela was born on Jan 26, 2010 and weighed 8lbs and 10oz. She's doing better now than she was at first. The day after we left the hospital we had to go back to the Dr. because she wasn't going to the bathroom and lost a pound in 3 days (even though she seemed to be eating well). The Dr. wasn't sure what to think and thought she may have had some type of blockage in her stomach so he sent us to the ER at TX Children's for a chest x-ray. Praise God it came back normal, but they do think she has acid reflux. She cries a lot especially after eating and it makes us sad to see her in pain. They told us at the hospital there isn't a whole lot they can do (it takes time and hopefully she'll outgrow it as her muscles in the digestive system develop) and just to try and make her as comfortable as possible when she is crying. She's on prevacid and it seems to be helping to some degree. The good thing is that she's going to the bathroom regularly and is gaining weight although she still seems to cry quite a bit. At any rate, it could be worse and we are thankful for our newest little girl.

It's snowing!!

Can you believe it? Unfortunately, Massy's school didn't get out early but he still came home in time to make his snowman w/ the neighbors. I have to admit I stayed inside most of the time and only came out to take some pictures; it was pretty cold and I don't have a jacket that I can close b/c my stomach is too big :) Massy was laughing at the kids because they didn't know how to make a snowman. I have to admit I didn't either and I lived in Alaska!!

Trick or Treat

Annalisa dressed up as a little black cat and was adorable. One of her favorite songs that she loves to sing is "gatto nero" in Italian (black cat in English). She only knows the main chorus but she sings it over and over. She got a lot of use out of the costume (she cried when we took it off of her) and halloween night was the 3rd time she was able to wear it. We went to a little halloween party last week, and then halloween afternoon we went trick or treating at a shopping center close by and then to end the evening we went to a huge festival at church. Annalisa had a great time. She was able to do so many things and just loved all the inflatable slides and obstacle courses. She's usually one of the smallest ones on their but it doesn't stop her. She also loves balloons and in the picture above the "tall man" was making balloon animals. He made her a blue poofy poodle. She just stood there and stared at him for the longest time. She didn't know what to make of his height. It was funny to watch her!

Happy Birthday Annalisa

Annalisa turned 2 years old a couple weeks ago (Sep 23). It's been a little crazy around here as a lot is going on. On a quick sidenote...we are selling our house next week. Closing is on Wednesday which I'm kind of sad about. It all happened so fast and we didn't anticipate this. It's a huge blessing to not own 2 houses plus the first people who looked at our house are buying it so that made things real easy however, we also haven't found a house to move to which makes things a little more difficult. But amazingly enough God has given us a peace about it. There are times when I feel stressed/anxious, but for the most part I'm just taking it in stride.
At any rate, back to Annalisa's birthday...So, we celebrated her birthday w/ a small little group at Memorial City Mall carousel. I think Annalisa enjoyed and she finally actually "got" that it was for her. We kept telling her days before that her birthday was coming, but she was confused because she'd been to 3 friends' birthdays in the last 2 weeks so she was still stuck on singing to them. She loves to sing "Happy Birthday". She's been singing it for a long time (several months). It's funny because as time passes it gets more and more clear. This summer she kept singing it in Italy and you could barely tell that it was Happy Birthday. Now it's very clear that it's "Happy Birthday" although the words are all still jumbled together. Below are pics of the "birthday girl" and her big "2 year old" cupcakes. Happy 2nd Birthday, Annalisa!!

Venezia

We went to Venezia with Massy's Aunt & Uncle (Guido & Francesca). We left Annalisa at home w/ her nonni. Guido & Francesca are excellent hosts and tour guides. They know the city well and took us all over. They used to live in Venice and still live very close but on another island, Lido. They showed us several places including , a bar Francesca worked at when she first moved to Venice at age 14 (she had to leave her home at 14 years old and go to work--she didn't even get to go to high school), the school Guido's mom used to work at, an apartment they used to live in, and several other neat places. We had a great lunch at a very quaint place, stopped for gelato and coffee. We walked a lot and normally it would be a piece of cake except for the fact that I'm pregnant so I have to go the bathroom nonstop and bathrooms are definitely not accessible like they are here in the US. At any rate, it was a lot of fun and I'm glad we were able to go see Venice and spend time with them.

Happy Birthday Braden!

Last night we went to a super fun birthday and even better we remembered the camera. Braden Brown, our Sunday school teacher's son turned 3!! They had a great party and even got a water slide and pinata for the kids. It was a green and black "army man" birthday and Braden seemed so happy. I love the fact that he had to have his goggles on when playing on the waterslide. Annalisa especially loved the slide; she couldn't climb up it so Massy had to lift her every time. She probably went down it around 20x's and even went down head first after watching her friend Allison try it.

The BIRTHDAY boy w/ candy from the pinata

Annalisa on the slide

Ella, Annalisa & Audrey waiting w/ their candy bags for the pinata to break

Audrey taking a swing at the pinata

Annalisa's buddy Mia on the slide

Allison going head first down the slide

Kennedy & Annalisa just finished going down

Class of 2030 picture #1

April 2008
Annalisa 8m & Presley 2m

Gig 'Em Class of 2030

Lil' Aggies: Taylor (age 5), Annalisa (almost 2yrs), & Presley (18m)
Look closely at Annalisa's dress. A friend made it for her before she was born and I just love it. It's white w/ little A&M seals and "gig 'ems" all over it. It's really cute.



So Jennifer & I made our yearly trip to Aggieland. Jennifer was one of my roomates & best friends at A&M; she lives in Hamilton, TX (a small town outside of Waco). We meet once a year at A&M since it is about 1/2 way for us and of course we rarely ever make it back so we both are excited to see how much it has changed. Her daughter, Presley and Annalisa are about 6 months apart so we tell them they are future roomates class of '30. It's our goal to get a picture of them every year until they graduate from high school. (I'll put up last year's pic in another post.) We did decide this year that we might need to make 2 trips though 1 with kids (for our pic) and 1 without so we can actually enjoy each other :)