Randomness

• Took Emilio, Gabi and my nephew Marco to see the Princess and the Pea at the local theatre on Friday morning through E's preschool. It was a cute little musical. It was fun to get to spend some quality time with my little nephew that morning, along with my older two.
  

• Poor little Luci Bug got sick last week with a fever for several days. She and I both lost some sleep on both Thursday night and Friday night. On Saturday, she had me up at 4:30 in the morning. We both watched Dancing with the Stars on hulu for the heck of it because nothing else looked interesting. We ruled out ear infections with the doctor, apparently it is just a viral thing, and possibly teething to go along with it too. Poor little bug. She started perking up a bit last night and today. Glad she got it before our trip.

• Stood in the rain to watch Emilio's soccer game on Saturday morning. He scored 1 goal and got two assists. I was proud of my little hustler. I can tell he's still conflicted about kicking the ball away from someone if they have it. Here he's been taught not to take "toys" away from children, and now we are asking him to do it. Strange concept I'm sure for his 5 year old brain.
  

• Took the kids to Target on Sat. afternoon so they could get a few prizes for the plane ride this week (Grandpa and Grandma had given them some travel money). Gabi has especially struggled with the "no playing with the toys until the plane ride" concept, but I have them in my safe keeping so there is no temptation.
  

• Stayed home with Luci on Sunday morning from church. We want her to be 100% for our travels, and didn't think the nursery would be okay with her runny nose. John took the older two to church. I got TONS done while Luci napped. It is AMAZING what I can accomplish when I'm not interrupted and I don't have trails of messes being made behind me as I work.
  

• We are trying to pack ALL carry-on items for our trip this week so that we don't get charged the extra "check-in" fees. That is no small feat for a family of five! It is quite like assembling a puzzle really. I think I've figured it out though. AND, I made some cute luggage tags for all of our bags to boot.

• Received AMAZING news about a friend's engagement this week. I'm so over the moon excited for my childhood friend. This has been a longtime prayer request, and I'm so excited I get to be part of the celebration next Fall as a bride's maid.
  

• Went on a play date while E was in school this morning for Gabi and Luci. We had fun until we heard Gabi say, "Cora's stuck!" My friend and I rounded the corner to see her daughter's head stuck between the stair banister rails, I mean she was REALLY STUCK. We were about to loob her head up with olive oil, but thankfully my friend's husband who works from home, was able to remove a rail to get his daughter to safety. We did giggle at little Cora's predicament, and her mother took before and after photos.
  

• I miss my Grammy all the time. Just a random side note, but she's always in my mind. I know it selfish of me to wish her back, but I do sometimes.
  

• We have one more day to cross off on our Countdown to Disneyland calendar. We are very excited to head out this week for our trip. The weather looks like it will be a comfortable high 60's while we are there. It should be great.
  

There is a little bit of randomness for you for this week. Next week's entry should be filled with a garantuous amount of photos from the "Happiest Place on Earth."

"love a baby"

Luci received a Bitty Baby for her 1st birthday. She LOVES her. She is drawn to baby dolls and real babies too, and she's pretty darn gentle with them. She picks up her baby doll and snuggles her and touches her eyes and nose, it is really sweet. We tell her "love a baby," and she rocks her baby back and forth, and smashes her head against her baby dolls head. It is so endearing to see that she already has a nurturing nature about her.

p.s. not sure why the top portion is pink and underlined. Strange things are happening to me in blogger today. sorry.

Happy 13 months today Luci!

Countdown.......

to Disneyland!!!

In a few weeks we are heading to Southern California to meet John's parents (who are flying in from Chicago) for a Disneyland vacation altogether. We are very excited as this will be the first time we experience Disney as a family. The last time I was in Disneyland, I was 17 years old and with my fellow dance team members after our State competition, so its been a while. E and G are at a great age to go to the "Happiest Place on Earth." L is a little young, but I think she'll enjoy all the sights and sounds. We have a three day hopper pass and we'll be going to Disneyland for two days and CA Adventure for one day. I made this countdown that we have on our fridge awhile ago, and we put an X on a Mickey head each day. Only a few more weeks now.

The picture was taken a few weeks ago, so we are actually now much closer to our take off date. I'll be sure to take lots of photos while we are there to post here. So be looking for that, or beware, if you don't want to see loads of Disney pix. :)

Easter

Better late than never right? We had a quiet Easter this year just by ourselves. We hid Easter baskets for the kids, went to church, and then had an Easter dinner. My brother Michael came over with his kiddos (his wife wasn't feeling well) for a little while. We did a little indoor egg hunt with all the kiddos (because it was hailing outside), and they ended up staying for dinner with us.

Decorating eggs on Saturday with Daddy

Gabriela, Luciana and Emilio

Her 2nd Easter basket, last year she was only a few weeks old, so she didn't even notice her basket then.

So pleased with her Littlest Pet Shoppe hermit crab

my boy bunny

Strawberry Chocolate Meringue Torte for dessert!

terribly behind

Just a quick hi to let everyone know we are doing okay, I'm just terribly behind on my postings due to the difficult month we've had with the passing of both my Nonno and my Grammy. We just celebrated Grandma's life this past Saturday. She didn't want a funeral, a memorial or obituary, but said to "celebrate" instead. That we did, with flowers, balloons, food and lots of sharing of the many wonderful memories we had with her and many other loved ones (and boy, did she have a lot of loved ones). Grandma was the kind of person that you did not have to be blood related to be part of her family. I love that, and hope I can carry on her legacy. We still miss her like crazy but are so thankful to be assured she's in a better place now.

Anyway, after being in Portland for nearly a week, I'm trying to get caught up around the house. Plus, although Luci isn't walking yet, she is BUSY! She's crawling fast, and climbing up on e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g! We've got baby gates blocking the bottom and top of the stairs that we all have to practicallly vault over every time we go up and down the stairs. Poor Gabi isn't tall enough, so it is slowing her down as well as her baby sister.

Besides that, we are making some changes in our home...no more home phone, and we got rid of cable as well to save some money each month. The adjustment is going to hurt a little. I don't like talking on my cell phone, but feel it makes more sense to keep that right now with our busy come and go lives. With John's engineering genius, we are still able to get TV channels somehow. He is very technically saavy, and I am not, so I don't even understand how he's Mcgyver'd our TV and computer and some antenna thing for us to be able to watch some TV still. Anyway, I'm thankful for him. AND, here's hoping shaving off these "Extras" help us be able to save a little extra each month.

I still have Easter photos to put up, and our cool countdown for Disneyland (we are heading there in a few weeks with John's parents....it will be our first trip as a family to Disney), along with some other happenings too. I'll try and post them some other time this week. For now, I have some putting away of clean laundry to do, and I'd love to see the top of my dresser for the first time in months, which will require some de-cluttering on my part. That, and fix dinner before soccer practice tonight, and so, SO LONG FOR NOW!

First Year Photos

Here are Luciana's first year photos from Yuen Lui.