Gianna's First Holy Communion

Gianna celebrated her First Holy Communion on April 2. It was a beautiful day and a lovely ceremony. She looked so beautiful and was so excited for this milestone. It was a joy to see her excitement and to be a part of it with her. Her cousin Bella celebrated at the same time, making the day even more special for the whole family. My parents and my in-laws were here, as well as Aunt Jenny and Uncle Steve. We are so proud of the young lady she is becoming!

April Happenings

Ah, the joys of home ownership! We celebrated one year in this house a couple weeks ago. We love it still! Unfortunately, we don't love having to call Roto-rooter at 10pm every 5 months to unclog our sewer line. So we decided to bite the bullet and have a new line put in. Luckily the insane cost bought us peace of mind in addition to a beautiful new pipe. It also bought us a morning of entertainment for Joe, who absolutely loved watching the backhoes at work and started out the window most of the morning.

In other news, Joe likes to wear Gianna's headbands as sweatbands. He also will pull them over his eyes like the ninja turtles (except the headbands don't have holes, so he can't see; this is both entertaining and dangerous).

One rainy day, the boys and I did a fun painting craft. Joe made a mess; Mark made a cool design.

Soccer is upon us and rather than run back and forth to practices and rather than get bored out at the fields, sometimes we play in the car. 

Gianna's class had a poetry reading at school. Her poetry was quite amazing...in my opinion of course. All the kids were adorable and the boys loved the snacks. Gianna's teacher is amazing and extracts great work from her students. We're going to miss her next year!

And sometimes we just lounged around. I wish Joey was more visible in this picture because he truly looked like a blob. 

Joseph is 2!!!

This cake has been nothing but trouble, first I smudge the writing seconds after finishing it and then I can't post the picture in the right direction. A fitting display, I suppose. Anyway, our baby Joe turned 2 on April 22. When your third child turns two (well, when ours does anyway) there's not a lot of hoopla. We invited the cousins over for a celebratory lunch on the Saturday beforehand (which was only different from a usual afternoon with them in that it had cake and a present). On his actually birthday we just had more of the same cake and some more presents. Despite it's simplicity, he loved it! We celebrated a few other birthday shortly thereafter and he seemed truly disappointed that all the fuss wasn't for him anymore!

He's our curly-haired doll! Lovable and charming, but also mischievous! He loves to snuggle and give hugs and kisses. He also loves to rough-house. Flopping around on Mark's bed is a favorite activity. He repeats everything. He eats everything. He makes friends wherever we go, usually sparked by his hair and winning smile. His brother and sister adore him and want everyone they meet to adore him as much as they do. We love you Joseph! Happy 2nd Birthday!

Easter

We had a huge crowd for Easter dinner, but Easter morning was just us! The kids were delighted to find their presents and had such a good time hunting for eggs. 

The kids in the usual picture spot! They looked so beautiful and handsome. I thought Joey would fuss about putting on "fancy" clothes, but when he saw Mark wearing them, he had to be a part of it!

Aunt Elizabeth took this one after Mass. So adorable.

Of course there are no pictures of our Easter feast, but with 8 adults and 10 kids, I'm not sure we were ever all in the same room at once anyway. All the food was delicious and the kids were even able to play outside since the weather was so nice! Easter blessings for sure!

Spring Break!

We spent the weekdays of spring break in Virginia with Grandma and Grandpa. Here are the highlights. 

We went to a bounce place to play one morning. All the kids loved it. Joe did his best to keep up with the big kids. I have a hilarious video (too long to be posted here) of Joe on one of those pillow bouncers getting tossed all around and laughing like crazy. So funny!

Dyeing Easter eggs was another fun activity. The boys stuck with the blues and greens (as usual) and Gianna did the pinks and purples. It was great fun!

One afternoon while Joe napped, Grandma and Grandpa took the big kids to mini-golf. They had a blast and each got a hole-in-one! They stopped at Walmart afterward and the kids were treated to toys and they picked out this gem for Joe. 

While out with Grandma and Grandpa, I took a nap, watched TV, read a book, and got ready for an evening out with an old friend. Pretty good day for Mom! Thanks for such a fun week Grandma and Grandpa!

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.