March Madness

March was super busy for us, and I barely have any pictures to show for it. We spent a lot of time focusing on Lent, which was lovely and peaceful. But then the craziness started. 

I had a wisdom tooth extracted in early March, which ended up being a snow day for Gianna and also began a weekend of her with a stomach bug. Luckily, this did not get passed to anyone else. Luckily, I healed quickly and other than my oral surgeon being featured on the TV show "Impractical Jokers" there is absolutely nothing interesting to report there. 

The following weekend I went to the beach in Maryland to see all my best college girlfriends. It was awesome. We literally did nothing but talk and laugh for hours on end. Gianna was incredulous. "So...you just talked? That's it?" Sometimes that's all there needs to be! 

But real life was waiting for me when I got home. Mark had a fever...the only symptom of a mercifully short virus. But I suspect Joe got it and looked like this for a week. 

He just wanted to be held all the time. I felt so bad for the little dude, but it sure was exhausting. And the duration of his illness made me worried that this new and uncharacteristically whiny disposition was actually a new personality and my sweet, happy boy was gone forever. (I'm happy to report that he is back to normal and I can see that my fear was ridiculously pessimistic!) 

And just as he started feeling better, Gianna developed a mysterious illness. I kept her home from school for 3 days because she had a very low fever and stomach ache and didn't want to eat. After finally taking her to the doctor (strep test proved negative and cold diagnosed), I sent her back to school on Thursday and Friday. She still wasn't acting like her normal self, but I thought school might help. Well, Friday afternoon, the doctor called to say that the more sensitive strep test came back positive. I was glad to have an answer and full of hope that she would start feeling better. Unfortunately, antibiotics cannot cure a mental block. She just got herself so upset and worried that she would be sick forever. I felt bad for her, but it was so frustrating to know that if she could just try not to think about being sick she would probably feel better. 

Anyway, now that my readers (mom and Cristina) have fallen asleep, I can say that a trip to Grandma and Grandpa's for spring break helped her to put it all behind her and she seems to have made a full recovery...physically and mentally! Read what we did on spring break in my next post!

We had a mom and Gianna morning (with Joe as an accessory) at the mall. This day was the calm before the storm of illness! 

February Fun

Oh this winter! February was definitely filled with a lot of indoor activities to escape the frigid temps and often-falling snow. We did manage to escape for a weekend in Virginia with my in-laws and my parents, but while were there it snowed 8 inches! But staying cozy and warm with Nonna and Pop-pop is a fun time. And a movie night with Pop-pop's best popcorn is even better.

Back at home, weekends and snowy days are for doing silly things like wearing mustaches and making crazy faces. 

We also experimented with homemade play-doh, which kept us busy for a long time. 

Snow days!

The weather had been so cooperative and then this happened! I think we've had some kind of snow event every weekend for the last 3 weeks. It's beautiful and I love a snow day every now and then, but it just doesn't go away fast enough when temperatures stay so low and I'm ready for it to be gone!

This was actually a great day for playing in the snow because it wasn't super cold. Even Joe enjoyed it. He couldn't move from all the layers, but he didn't mind too much.

This snowman is really Gianna's accomplishment, but here's Mark taking credit. 

Swinging and falling into the snow is a fun new game!

I remember liking snow days as a kid, and as a teacher words can't even describe the joy I felt about them. As a parent, I love having an extra day every once in a while to just hang out at home, doing nothing, just spending quality time with the kids.

Winter days

Joe and I spend a lot of school time shopping and running errands. Sometimes he wears goggles...for hours. I forget he's wearing them, but the people that pass us by always get a laugh.

Donuts with the boys. Joe called them "noduts" and loved them. As of this posting he calls them "nonuts." And for some reason he has to yell this word. "NONUTS!"

I guess even schools like to make the dreary winter more interesting Mark had mixed-up day. He was into it. Different socks, non-matching patterns, backwards shirt, backwards coat. He told some of his classmates he would be wearing his socks over his shoes; I quickly put that idea out of his mind.  Apparently another mother had to assure her child that Mark would not, in fact, be wearing socks over his shoes; I'm glad I could prove her right!

Some times having 2 brothers is more than one girl can handle :) Just kidding, she was mad about her video game or something, but I think the picture is hilarious.

Gianna had jersey day right before the Super Bowl. How cute is she? I think field goal kickers could get a football between those teeth!!

Joe's first haircut

It's official. My baby is getting too old. He just turned 21 months and has finally started talking a lot and got his first haircut. Nooooooo!!!! :)

He had such cute little curls, but they started getting a little wild, so while I was nervous to let them go, it was time. He DID NOT want to take before pictures, so this is the best I could get of the untamed mane.

He did great for the haircut. He got to sit in a cool car and watch Elmo. What more can a guy ask for?

And he got a lollipop and balloon after. So cute. So happy.

He loves Gianna and Mark so much. And he always wants to do what they do. He's a great imitator. Whether it's something you want him to imitate is another issue, but anyway...Here he is "playing" Wii with Gianna. 

Back to reality

I always find it hard to let go of the joy of Christmas and the laziness of school holidays, but this year seemed especially hard. Maybe because Christmas was a blur of guests and illness? Who knows. But taking down the Christmas decorations was sad. And mornings are back to being busy, but the kids are continuing to love school and Joe is a joy even when it's just the two of us. So the new year is looking good so far!

I had a vacuum assistant for Christmas clean-up. I know a lot of little ones that are afraid of the vacuum. Not this kid!

One of my favorite dates with the boys...Costco! I love the shopping at bargain prices and they love the samples and snack bar. It's a win-win! (I mean, could I have cuter shopping companions?!)

 One of our Christmas gifts to the kids was tickets to see Wild Kratts Live! It's one of their favorite shows on TV so they had a great time out with Doug for the afternoon. Gianna got all dressed up in her Christmas gift from her Nonna. She looks so grown up, I think, and pretty...despite the missing two front teeth! She lost one just before Christmas and one just after. I was hoping the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus would meet up for cookies on Christmas Eve, but alas, 'twas not meant to be.

This randomness (below) is my latest (and nearly only) creative venture. I bought a similar sign on Etsy (I think maybe I posted about it) for Christmas. It was worth the price, but I wondered if I could create something similar for less. I'm pretty pleased with my efforts. I'm not ready for my own Etsy shop yet, but it's not bad and definitely cheaper. I know Valentine's Day is a ways off, but I wanted to start that one ASAP in case it took me until Valentine's Day to finish it! On a related note, I just finished our wedding album. The 10 year anniversary is the wedding album anniversary right? Maybe I'll post a picture of that when it arrives in the mail. 

Christmas!

This post should really be called, "I think this is what happened at Christmas." I had a little cough early in the week of Christmas and on Christmas Eve woke up with a fever and felt convinced I had the flu. So I headed straight to urgent care. They did not try to confirm flu, but gave a bazillion prescriptions (I could write a whole other post on that insanity, but anyway...). After getting home I felt a bit better and decided if it was the flu it was a mild case so I put my game face on and got ready for my parents, my in-laws, and my sister-in-law and brother-in-law to arrive within hours. Since I wasn't 100%, I was so glad everyone was there to help Doug (the Christmas Eve chef, along with Nick) out. Doug missed it to stay home cooking but I went to church to see Gianna in the Christmas pageant. It was adorable. 

Oh, I almost forgot, literally all of these pictures were taken by my mom and I was in the haze of illness and  based on these pictures it is clear to me that I was too sick or too drugged to remember a lot of these details, so thank you Mom for capturing Christmas for me!

After church, everyone arrived  at the house and it was time for festivities to begin. Doug's boss and family were even there to join us, so it was quite a crowd.

Gianna playing elf to hand out Christmas gifts.

I never thought I'd have a dining room big enough to accomodate all these people. (14 adults and 9 children!)  It was glorious! Doug was in heaven, I think, it reminded him of his childhood at his grandmother's huge Christmas Eve table. So happy that we can create those memories for our kids too!

The amount of cookies made by all the people in this group was, well, gross but also delicious! The kids' eyes were bigger than their stomachs I think!

The kids exchanged gifts. Thank goodness! I think doing cousin/sibling/friend gifts on Christmas Eve takes the anticipation craziness down a little bit...maybe even helps them sleep better! (Although, sleep on Christmas Eve, especially for me, was at a premium!)

Gianna was too excited about her special gift she made at school to wait until Christmas morning to give it to me and Doug. It was a calendar with handprint artwork for each month and with our family's special dates included. It was beautiful and she was so proud to share it with us and the rest of the family. Brought some tears to our eyes for sure!

Finally, Christmas morning! (After just 3 hours sleep for me, Gianna up for a bit with a fever, and Joe crying for an hour we managed to get excited about all the gift giving (and receiving of course!). 

Santa must have known that we would all be sick during the Christmas holiday and would need something to do because he brought the kids a WiiU and we all had a fun time playing together! Doug and Gianna felt terrible on Christmas day and by the end of the next week just about everyone had gotten the awful virus! Despite illness and fatigue, it was a wonderful Christmas and we were so happy to celebrate in our new home for the first time with all our family around us. We are truly blessed beyond measure!