Baby, Baby, Baby Oh!

 

My Baby's too Bootylicious for ya! Chiara is my chunkiest baby and I love it! So do the kids. Gianluca and Allegra love to help put lotion on her after her bath and their favorite part is putting lotion on those sweet buns! Watch out Kim Kardation, Beyonce, and J Lo! My baby's got back!

 

Smother Mother! Allegra LOVE'S Chiara so much! She can't stop touching her or squeezing her. It's beyond her control! She's crazy in love with this baby! Chiara is so patient, but I know one day she's going to have enough and start smacking Allegra!

 

These are some old pictures from when she was three months old and was going through a stressful time in her life. She lost a lot of hair, as many men do when they are stressed. I think this hairstyle is amazing! I almost cut it, to make it look better, but Joel loved it, so I left it. You wouldn't believe how awesome it is now! Full and curly. She's a doll!

San Antonio/ Halloween

 

Here is Allegra dressed up for Freaky Friday at her preschool. She was so happy to wear her clothes backwards and have crazy hair!


The kids and I love love LOVE Halloween! We had a lot of fun Halloween activities this year. We had a great time at our neighbors annual pumpkin carving party and our Halloween night block party. We went trick-or-treating with our neighbors. Gianluca, Allegra, Matt and Tyler, Kyle, Thomas, and Seth all scored way too much candy!!!! But it was a blast!

 

Happy Halloween! Allegra was Super Girl, Gianluca was the Grim Reaper, and Chiara of course was an adorable Pumpkin.

We went to San Antonio a couple of weeks ago and had a blast. We have season passes to Sea World and went for their Halloween Spooktacular. The kids loved all of the fun shows like Azul and Seamore and Clyde. They loved feeding the dolphins and Gianluca road the Steel Eel for the first time with Joel and they had a blast!

 

Road trip to San Antonio. The kids had a blast watching Halloween movies and being crazy!

 

Here we are watching Seamore and Clyde with our popcorn and cotton candy. The kids loved it! And so did we!

 

Here are all of the fun pictures from the Halloween Spooktacular. Gianluca is such a ham!

 

River Walk/ The Alamo, oh and of course The World's Tallest Man!


BLAST FROM THE PAST

In March of this year Allegra and I went to San Antonio with my folks for some business meetings they had there. It was so fun having some time with my parents and Allegra before the baby came. Joel and Gianluca met up with us a few days later to go to Sea World.

 

River Walk/ Alamo

 

Sea World. My mom got soaked! Good Times!

Sea World 10/2011 at OneTrueMedia.com

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Why Does Blogging Take Sooo Much Energy and Time!

Hey Ya'll (yes I live in Texas, so don't hate)! And yes I'm kind of feeling dorky and feisty all at once. So I haven't blogged in three months and I find that I have so much to blog about and pics to put up that I really have no desire to blog at all. It's a lot like catching up on laundry! It seems I always have a ton to do, and no desire to do it. I don't mind folding it, as much as I mind putting it away. Case in point, the laundry basket full of the kids clothes that have been folded for three days! I hate putting laundry away! Anyways, for those of you who are awesome bloggers-- I am inspired by you! I'm just going to put up a few pictures that happened over the summer, and later I'll put up our summer vacation pictures.

I have to say that I was Dreading this summer. I think dreading is even an understatement! I was not looking forward to the chaos of having everyone home, the incessant teasing of Gianluca to Allegra. Allegra's constant screaming at Gianluca because he teases her, utter boredom of children who then drive me insane to the point of wanting to lock myself in my room and bang my head against the wall non-stop until I black out, all while taking care of a newborn... but it was-- dare I say-- pretty awesome! Yes! I survived and my children were pretty dang good if I do say so myself. Who cares if I drugged them so they slept all day! :) I kid, I kid! No really, they were really good and being gone for half of the summer actually really helped!

Update... I've been waiting for over an hour for five pictures to load, 5 pictures people! And they haven't yet! This is one major problem with blogging! Dang You Blogger! Dang You! (Just trying to keep it PG). I guess I'll add the pics later! Going to bed now! Three kids are kind of kicking my trash! Ok, Good Night.


My little slugger


First shiner from baseball camp


Sista's


I love, love , love this chunk!

Chiara's Blessing Pictures

We blessed Chiara on May 1st, 2011. It was so nice to have Joel's parents, my parents and sisters there to share it with us. Joel gave a beautiful blessing and we really just enjoyed the time we had with our family. My mom crocheted a beautiful blanket for the blessing and Maggie made Chiara's blessing dress and Allegra's dress. Thank You Both!


Grandpa Paul


Abu Norby


Our sideways Family


Darci, Mom,me, Kim, Allegra


The Decker Clan


The Maggiora Clan


The Grandparents

Chiara Isabella

Well, I had written a long post about the birthing process and saved it to post later with pics, but of course it has disappeared into the universe somewhere.... So how it all went down is like this. I went in for my appointment the day before my due date. I was dilated to a 3, so my doc stripped my membranes and gave me a few "suggestions" as to how to get my contractions going. Needless to say they worked and by three in the afternoon I was getting regular contractions. By 7:00 pm they were a few minutes apart so we went in. When they hooked me up to the monitor they noticed that every time I had a contraction that the baby's heart rate would drop really low. The problem was that I was only dilated to a four at this point and putting me on pitocin would only put the baby in further distress. After about an hour of this my doc decided we needed to take her by c-section. I was not ready for that, but in the moment you don't have much of a choice. Why is it that I know so many women who have their last baby by an unplanned c-section? Anyways, next thing we know, Joel is putting on some super tight scrubs, we're making lots of jokes with my doctor, and then I'm hauled off for surgery. It was just like in Gray's Anatomy where there is music playing and everyone operating on me were talking about what plans they had for the weekend, and who won that game, like it wasn't weird at all that they were about to pull a baby out of my stomach! It was surreal! I felt a lot of tugging and the next thing I know my beautiful little girl was screaming the most beautiful high pitched squeal you've ever heard! It was so hard to not be able to hold her as my arms were strapped down, but I was so happy when Joel put her little peanut head next to mine so I could kiss her. She was 21 1/2 inches and 8 lbs 2 oz. First and foremost... C-Sections suck!!! It is so frustrating having two normal deliveries where I could walk around and feel pretty normal after a couple days, to being in agonizing pain every time I had to get out of bed to go to the bathroom. Joel was my super hero! He was there with me the whole time. He took care of the baby the whole time and loved every minute of it. These two have a special bond. We decided to name her Chiara (key-ar-a) Isabella. She is so sweet and peaceful. She really is an easy baby (knock on wood). I can't believe she is already one month! Our home has been a revolving door for visitors. My mom was here for 10 days, Joel's mom for three weeks, then my father-in-law came, my parents, and sisters for the baby blessing. They all have helped us so much with the kids and our house. We are super grateful. Now Tio Christian is here and we are having a lot of fun. Allegra and Gianluca have been in heaven! They also love and adore Chiara. Allegra is a bit of a smother mother, but she's learning. I'm so happy she loves her sis so much. Anyways, I'll update more details later. That is the initial story. Joel's tight scrubs. He likes to call them his wrangler scrubs! Too funny! The Proud Daddy Our first meeting! All of my labor and delivery glory! Best Friends Already! Well at least while she can't talk yet! Mom, Darci, Kim, and me. I love these awesome women!It was a blast having them here! Abu Maggie, Allegra, and the baby The proud siblings More pictures and updates to come soon!

Baby Name Poll

Just saw on my pregnancy countdown that I have 42 days left!!! I'm not ready! I'm so not ready! And she's coming no matter what! Ok, so we don't even have a name picked out. Here's what we are thinking.... and keep in mind that our other two have Italian names so I'm trying to think of something that is unique and still is something that people can pronounce here in America without slaughtering it. When Joel says the names in his fancy Italian accent it sounds amazing, but I know all of us normal red-neck English speakers will just kill the name! I've had to axe a bunch of the names he liked for that reason. So here is our short list.

1. Giuliana (Juliana)
2. Chiara (Kiara)
3. Giada/ Gia for short
4. Alessandra/ Alessa for short
5. Aviana
6. Liliana (Lilly)

And I might add that we are not in love with any of these. And I change my mind every day. I used to like Isabella and Sofia (ok I still like Sofia a lot) until everyone and there dog named their daughters that around the time Allegra was born. So I need the name to be beautiful, easy to pronounce, and unique like my other kids. What do you think?

The Dude's 7th Birthday!

Well a lot has happened over the past month. Maggie (Joel's mom) came out for Gianluca's birthday and to help out. We had a great time with her. Gianluca was especially happy to have his own personal masseuse in town. She'd give him a foot massage almost every night before bed. He was in Heaven! I'm excited to also show you pictures of this toothless monster! He lost his two front teeth (one of which was knocked out while wrestling with Abu Maggie) and it is so freaking adorable that I love to see that enormous gap! You could parallel park your car in there I swear! But that space is quickly filling up with two big teeth. I can't believe that only seven years ago I had Gianluca on Superbowl Sunday and watched Justin Timberlake reveal Janet Jackson's boob the day the Patriots won. I was sitting there thinking, Did I just see that???? Yes, yes I did. What a great memory for his birth day!

Fast forward seven years and probably 6 moves later, we have this crazy passionate, wild child who is way more like his Dad every day. Apparently all of those people who cursed Joel to "have a child just like he was" got there wish! But I wouldn't have it any other way. He loves life, and he feels and loves and gets angry, but that is what makes him so special! It's amazing we've not had any problems with him at school (knock on wood!!!) and his teacher is always telling me how well behaved he is in class. I can't believe it because when he comes home, it's like opening the gates of animal kingdom! Oh well, he's our boy and we love the dude! For his b-day Allegra and I had lunch with him and took his class cupcakes and for dinner he wanted to go to Benihana's, his favorite restaurant. We had a blast and he loved talking trash to the cook and making jokes. We had a great time. He loves eating dumplings and shrimp there. Then we had a party at Chuck E Cheese for him with some neighborhood kids. He had a blast and got more presents than he had for Christmas. It was crazy! He wanted a giant cookie cake for his birthday, and because I'm a cheap skate and didn't want to by the $38 one from the mall, I made one for him. It wasn't pretty, but it sure tasted good!

Maggie helped refinish my rocking chair and finish some curtains. And of course made pajamas for Allegra and her doll. I always call her my little Juanita because she is always working non-stop while she is here. We can barely get her to relax! We really appreciate all she does for us!

That pretty much sums it up! Oh we got new granite and it looks amazing! I'll put pics up later. I'm still huge and uncomfortable. I have less than 7 weeks to go! AAAAAHHHHH!!! Scary! We still haven't got a name picked out. She might be nameless for awhile! Maybe I'll do a poll and see what names you guys like. Or maybe I don't want all of your opinions! :) I don't know!


Toothless Grin


Allegra loves bath time


Gianluca holding up his tooth fairy money and letter


Allegra's new jammies Abu Maggie sewed. Don't look at me, I look like a cow!

Dinner at Bennihannas with our funny and awesome cook Scott.


GL and Abu Maggie


His new found obsession, Mario Brothers. He and Joel play almost every night!


B-day money from Grandma and Grandpa Decker. He still hasn't spent it because he loves counting all of those ones!


The birthday boy and his sis

Murphy's Law and a lot of Complaining!

We have had the worst luck since we've moved here! I'm serious! On the drive out here in August our van brakes started going out and everything needed to be replaced $450 later, then I had to go to the ER in September because they thought I was having a heart attack or a pulmonary embolism. Luckily I was fine but petrified that my baby would come out extra limbs because of the test they ran on me with all that radiation... $1200 later. Then Joel's 10 year old mazda has had one problem after another, another $1000 later. Our brand new dishwasher's mother board was fried and we were without a dishwasher for several weeks and had two different repairmen come out, garbage disposal motor went out and it took two weeks and three repairmen visits to get it fixed, $200 later. Our brand new dryer keeps going out and I've been without a dryer for almost three weeks and by tomorrow will have the third repairman come out. Then my airbag light came on and just to have it checked out and get the light turned off it cost me $100!!!!!!! Did I mention that our computer is shot and runs as slow as a dinosaur, but because of all of the above we can't afford to buy a new one and Joel desperately needs a new car, but we don't want two car payments... what to do??? Can you believe it! So I guess I'm supposed to make lemonade or something!

What else-- Here's some TMI, this pregnancy has been awful for me. So I had the ER visit, the throwing up all the time, heart burn, acid reflux, and feeling like someone was sitting on my chest all the time in the first trimester. The second trimester I've had vulvar varacosities, which if you don't know are varicose veins in my "delicate region". This makes it so swollen and horrifying to look at (not that I usually do) but, it's not pretty and I can't stand for more than 5-10 minutes without being in a great deal of pain. Luckily I found this really sexy jock strap for pregnant women with this problem and it actually helps me a ton! It just sucks to wear. Not comfy, but better than swaying back and forth in pain. Now I have some sort of pinched nerve in my hip, and all the while, I'm still trying to get my house settled! Most days I upgrade from my p.j's to sweats because I really don't care or feel good enough about how I look. Is this just third pregnancies in general? I don't know!


I told you it was sexy!

Other than that, GL lost his front tooth and the other one is hanging on by a thread. It is seriously the funniest thing ever! I had the dentist just pull it out while we were at his dentist appointments getting yes 6 cavities filled and two crowns, $700 later! I swear we make him brush his teeth every day! Allegra was jealous that he has two "star" teeth and she only has one. I told her, you don't want more than one! What else, GL also has a nasty rash on his elbows called molluscum contagiousum which looks like a bunch of warts. It just goes away on it's own and can last up to 2 years! I did some more looking on the internet and found a wheat grass spray and it is almost cleared up! The doc said you can't do anything for it except pop them or cut them out. I'm glad I found this stuff.



Ok, enough complaining, just wanted to vent!