Feliz Cumple Abu Maggie!

Well we just wanted to give a special birthday shout out to my very special mother-in-law! She is an amazing woman who will do anything for anyone. She is very selfless and always sacrifices her time and money to help those in need! She has helped us a million times in a million different ways and we will always be indebted to her! The kids wanted to send a special birthday wish to you today! We woke up to a winter wonderland AGAIN today, so the kids put on their snowsuits and went out. In fact, they are still out there! I apologize in advanced for the horrible camera work, the sun was in my eyes!!! Happy birthday and we love you!!!

P.S. Push pause on the music on the right hand side of the page so you can here the kids' birthday message.
P.S.S. I know I need to update my music!!!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

2 months later!

Well, since I haven't had my own computer since December, I finally have had a chance to download Gianluca's birthday party pictures, taken by my good friend Betsy. Anyways, As a last big get together for him (and since we had no place to give him a birthday party) we decided to have it at Pump It UP. He invited a ton of friends to come and go crazy. I wish I had one of these in my back yard, or even in our basement. It is such a good energy drainer. Anyways, his theme was BEN 10. He is so into this cartoon it is a little crazy. But I must say that I actually enjoy watching this with him. His best friend Aidan got him hooked on it. Anyways, it was so fun and it makes me really homesick for my amazing friends in Houston! Gianluca really misses his friends! So here are the pictures from his party.

We just moved to South Jordan two weeks ago. Joel's mom flew in on the 17th of March and watched the kids for us while my parents and I flew out to Houston. We had one last dinner with some of our friends and then took off the very next morning in the U-haul while my parents drove our van (lucky dogs!) It was a crazy two days. We drove 11 hours the first day, and then we had a 14 hour day on Friday. We got into SLC @ 11 PM. It was actually really fun just chatting w/ Joel and seeing all of the pretty scenery. Although some parts of New Mexico are definitely the armpit of the world! We had so much help in getting here and then my sister Darci and her family helped move us in, along w/ Joel's brother and aunt. We are really blessed!

It has been crazy weather and constantly snowing, so we haven't gotten to meet too many people, although I know when it gets warm the neighborhood will be swarming w/ children. So until then, Gianluca is completely bored. I just signed him up for Karate and swim lessons. Alley is also signed up for swim lessons, but can't take dance until she is potty trained. It is a work in progress.

Speaking of Allegra, my aunt Karen is a very talented photographer and she just took some incredible pictures of Allegra. Here's a link to her blog... http://www.karenaphotography.blogspot.com/ Thanks Karen!



She refused to wear the hat at this point!

Gypsy Woman

Hey, I just wanted to state that I am alive and somewhat breathing. At any rate our lives consist of living in and out of a hotel that is the size of my old bathroom, staying at my all to generous friends house, and I'm seriously considering taking up drinking coffee at this point. Okay now, don't be apauled.... I said I'm considering it. Not that my caffine addiction to Coke is much better. Anyways, we are holding up considerably well, besides the fact that I almost cry...or do... everytime we drive by the old house. I wonder what the new owner would think if he came home to us just hanging out on the couch. Allegra is always telling me she wants to go home. It's sad.
Joel's class is very time consuming and hard. But I am proud to say that he is getting high A's on all of his tests this far. He'll be done March 13th. We can hardly wait to be done!!!! And get back to a normal life style!!!!

Gianluca's birthday is this coming Sunday. Super Bowl Sunday again! That is when he was born. The Super Bowl where Janet Jackson exposed herself on national TV. Awesome. I was sitting in the hospital room recovering thinking "Did I just see that??" Good Times, good times.

So this post is very Random and no I don't have any pictures to post right now as my camera is at the hotel. But that will come soon enough! This is random, I know... I'm sleep deprived!!!!

I'm Feeling a Little Vaclempt! (Don't know how to spell that!)

I have less than a week in my beautiful little home and I am terribly sad about it! I just hate to leave here and leave all of my memories and friends. But I know that this is a good move for us and that it is a huge blessing for Joel that he loves his job finally after all of these years. To do something you love is a blessing indeed! So anyways, Here are some pictures of the first home we really made together. We moved here in June 2006 one month before Allegra was born and have created memories and friends to last a lifetime! For that I will always be grateful! To my friends and home, You will be missed immensely!!! I love you!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

A little break from the mundane...

So I'm up to my ears in packing, one of the things I hate most in life! And I thought I'd write about one of my biggest loves in life... my kids. I seriously think I have a major crush on Gianluca (not a sick and twisted one okay! I'm his mother!!!!) He has been so funny lately from his booty dance to just the funny things he says. So I wanted to write a few out before I forget:

1) (note: this day was a crazy day and The Dude was not listening what-so-ever! I had to tell him repeatedly what he was supposed to be doing to the point of raising my voice before we had to go, here is what he said in the car-ride following)

G) Mom, did Jesus make everything?

Me) Yes he did (proud he was even thinking of Jesus)

G)Why did Jesus make mom's that yell?

Me) (in shock!) Why did Jesus make little boys that don't listen to their mommy's?

G) Well you yelled at me at the house!

Me) Well if you'd listen, I wouldn't have to yell at you to get your attention....


AAAh, it's a vicious cycle isn't it! Once you get started on that, it seems the whole day is that way! But that sure made me laugh! I swear he is 4 going on 14!

2)

G) Mom when you leave me I get so sad that I cry. It just breaks my heart! But when you get back, POOF! I'm happy again!

3) Why is it that anytime we go to the store the Dude feels the need to go #2?? Almost without fail. And he is a man for sure because he takes his time! I'm always like, "Gianluca, are you finished?" While Allegra is running around touching every possible thing in the bathroom. And he always says, "Mom, You have to wait for your poo poo to come out!"

4) Yes, I've been known to curse now and then... maybe a bit more. But upon finding Gianluca making a disaster out of something I usually say "Dude, what in the hell are you doing????" Now, he likes to use that term every once and awhile and always in the perfect context. "What in the hell!!!" When he sees something crazy or what have you. I'm not proud of it, but I sure think it's funny. And I really don't consider hell a swear word. Maybe I'm just rationalizing, but there are a few others I'd like to add to the list as well.....

5) Mom can I have to some chocolate? Can I get it from your secret mustache? (secret stash :)

6)After leaving Chick-Fila, the Dude was really wound up and acting crazy. I told him he wouldn't be able to go to Aidan's house if he didn't chill out. So he looks at me w/ a big sigh and says "Mom, Can we discuss this later?" The little shi%^&!!! I almost could have killed him!!! And then it was pretty funny! He started laughing and told me he got that line from BEN 10!


There are a million more, but I can't think of them being distracted by boxes half packed and what not!!! Anyways, every mother adores her children I know, but I am definitely enjoying the age he is. He's a little person and really thinks about the world around him. At this age they are so full of passion, curiosity, very forgiving... I think I really understand what Jesus means about being more childlike. Gotta love these munchkins!!!

NYC.... And We Sold Our House!!!

So First off the big news... which I'm not completely thrilled with (sigh)WE SOLD OUR HOUSE! I'm not sure if that is meant to be excited or scared! So after 4 showings and all of the family members, dogs, uncles mouse saw our house and so forth, they put in an offer. We went back and forth a couple of times and they excepted it on Saturday. So now we will be officially homeless as of Dec. 19th. I'm really sad I won't get to decorate for Christmas! Joel thinks I should put that Michael McLean song "Homeless" from his Forgotten Carols album on the blog. It's quite fitting. We still need to show the house for the next ten days in case the inspection doesn't go well, which is super annoying. Today at 1:30 they called to see the house from 1:30-2:30! Are you kidding me!!! I have a toddler taking a nap and they want me interrupt my quiet time! So I declined it. I am so sick of showing my house I could scream! GRRRRRRR!!!

On a lighter note, Joel's parents are flying in this Saturday and Joel will be coming on Monday for Thanksgiving. We will be busily eating turkey and packing. FUN FUN FUN, but the funnest part of this week will be watching TWILIGHT!!! Can't wait! Then I will be on my own for a couple more weeks and back to Idaho for Christmas! It will be so nice to have a white Christmas!

NYC
At the beginning of this month we went to NYC for a long weekend. It was amazing! I've never been and have always wanted to go there in the fall. We stayed with Joel's amazing cousins from Argentina (Gustavo) and Uruguay (Rossana). They live in an apartment in Manhattan and were just blocks away from all of the sights. We went to Magnolia Bakery, Time Square, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (incredible! We didn't have enough time to see everything), Wicked, SoHO, China Town, Little Italy, and part of Central Park. The NYC marathon was going on so we couldn't really walk around and didn't have enough time. I have to add a funny story about Wicked. I've really wanted to this play for awhile. All of the tickets were $120+ so we weren't going to go. We were at the ticket hub in Time Square and what seemed to be a homeless woman with 2 teeth came up to us w/ tickets for wicked. She was hilarious! She said she would give them to us for $80, so we walked across the street w/ her to an ATM. I kept saying, "How do we know these tickets are good?" and she said "come meet this hot dog stand guy, he's known me for 20 years." So the hot dog guy says in broken English " Buy the tickets, is good." that made me feel a lot better! So we tell her we want to talk about it, and she paces back and forth and finally offers them to us for $60. We're still not sure so she introduces us to another guy who looks a lot more official and we decided to get the tickets. The tickets were good and the show was AMAZING! Loved it! So did Joel, so go see it. Gracias Rossana y Gustavo para todo! Era muy lindo!

This is getting super long, so I'll just add a few pics from our trip and go to bed!

Visits and Halloween

Well, as you can see I am kind of tired of blogging. Or maybe I'm just plain tired. But at any rate I've been really fortunate to have my mother come visit me for 5 days towards the end of October and then Joel and his mother came last week. To tell you the truth I've been getting the hang of this single mother thing and it isn't as bad as I expected. I love my little munchkins to death. Although there have been numorous occasions where I needed to put myself into time out and have gained a major addiction to caffine, it hasn't been all that bad!

Everything is going well with the house.... we've had 30 viewings. One offer, who then retracted that offer, one that wanted to put in an offer, but couldn't because it was too far away from her job; and hopefully one offer this Saturday for a person who's looked at the house twice already. I guess we'll see....

I really had an amazing time w/ my mom here and now with Joel and his mom. Halloween was fun and lots of carnivals to attend. Gianluca couldn't decide which costume to be, so I think he wore everything out of his costume box every chance he got. Allegra was the most adorable little kitty I've seen. It has been a crazy month, but very fun! Joel and I also got back from NYC recently, so I'll put pics of that up later!