Surprise! It's a....

Ok, so I may have failed to mention to many of you that I'm pregnant. I am 19 weeks along, and it has been so crazy that I just have not had time, internet connection, or many cell phone minutes to make the big annoucement. Not to mention the move and puking my guts out every day! In fact we just found out the sex of the baby yesterday and I'm having another girl! I have never ever been right about what I am having and I wasn't right this time. I was thinking it was a boy, but a las there was nothing dangling between her little legs. When I was explaining to Gianluca (who wants five brothers) that I was getting an ultrasound, I said if we see on the picture a little weener (I'm not sure what the correct spelling on that is), it's a boy, if not its a girl. He said "I want a picture of a weener!!!" I told him he probably shouldn't be going around saying that to other people! Needless to say we don't have the picture he wanted. He's super disappointed, but I'm sure he'll get over the fact that girls are whiny and cry and scream all the time! Okay maybe not. Joel and I are not sure we can handle another bi-polar girl. Allegra's mood swings are crazy! I think I need a prescription for mood swings stat!

Other than the fact that I'm prego, we've been running around like a bunch of chickens! In the last three months we've moved back to Texas, lived in temporary housing for 2 1/2 months, driving Gianluca to and from school or the bus stop, bought a house, tried to unpack as much as possible, had my mom come to visit for a few days, and now Joel's parents and brother are here for two weeks. I don't have pictures of Halloween, since my camera died and the charger was packed away in some unknown box, and well-- We are just a bunch of crazy Gypsy's!!!

Gianluca has tons of boys his age on our street and poor Allegra went from having 4 girls to play with on our old street to basically no one her age! She's pretty sad, but loves to play with her toys and keep me company. She is so excited for the new baby.

Anyways, just thought you'd like an update! Miss all of you back in Idaho and Utah like crazy!!!

Back to Texas

Well, it's official! We are moving back to the Woodlands. This last year and a half has been a crazy roller coaster ride! I did not want to move out to Utah at all. I loved the Woodlands, loved my friends who were like family, I didn't want to leave. But Joel was miserable in his job and had a chance to do something he loved! Plus being close to family made the move worth it. I can't say I love living in Utah. It just doesn't feel like home to me, but I do love the summers and the mountains. I made some great friends while I was here too. And many of them saved my life while Joel worked two weeks on, two weeks off. It's a hard life style, but I got used to being a single mom half the time. I truly loved being able to do all of the little family get togethers with my family, things I couldn't when I lived thousands of miles away. That was amazing! I have an amazing family. We are all about 4-5 years apart and yet we are all close. I will miss them very much! Gianluca and Allegra will miss their cousins like crazy! It's time to get skype I suppose!

For the last year Gianluca has really struggled without Joel around, well it's hard on everyone. And Joel missed out on all of the every day stuff. He missed our birthdays, Thanksgiving, Gianluca learning to ride his bike... stuff that means a lot. He truly loves his job, but wanted to be with us. So we prayed to find something he would love and that would bring home to us every evening. Soon enough his trainer from Halliburton called him up to apply for a job to train people to be drilling fluids engineer's on the oil rigs. He flew out two weeks ago and interviewed and got his offer yesterday. He is so happy he found a job that is not a desk job and that is also a huge step up in his career. He will also be home every day!!!! We are thrilled! Right now we are ironing out all the details, but we will probably be moving in 2-3 weeks. Crazy right!!!! Luckily we have a company moving us! So if you need any enticement to come visit check out The Woodlands website and you'll see why we love it there!!! I'll keep you posted.

Swagger Wagon

OK, I know you've seen those Toyota Sienna commercials where the mom thinks she's all that driving a mini van. I know, you fellow mini-van owners have been getting ready to go on a date with your hubby or go out with the girls and you look in the mirror and think "I'm looking pretty hot tonight" then you get in your van and it totally kills any hot vibe you were feeling about yourself. So when I saw these commercials I cracked up! I love that they make fun of us, or celebrate us, what have you. I know I was never thrilled to purchase our van, but I will say it is super practical, easy for the kids to get in and out of, and yeah when I can go faster than some guy in his souped up car, I do feel pretty cool.... until I remember what I'm driving. But hey, it's nice to pretend! Enjoy the following video!

Allegra's Birthday

My Baby is four years old! I can't believe it! Allegra is an awesome girl! Here's just a few things I love about her:
1)She is super silly! She is really funny.
2) She loves to make new friends.
3) She's very feminine.
4) She is very sweet but can have a fiery temper! (Wonder where she gets that from?)Maybe she's bipolar?? Hummm... I think all girls this age are.
5) She runs like a granny. Seriously, she is uncoordinated. It is so cute!
6) She plays great by herself.
7) She is very caring.
8) She loves to put her stuffed animals and dolls to bed. She lays them on pillows and covers them with blankets. It is adorable.
9) She loves to dress up and put on make up. I am in trouble!
10) She got "married" to her friend Luke and they kissed on the mouth five times!!! Good thing that boy moved to Reno!
11) She loves to lay in bed and "read" books to herself. So cute!
12) She thinks her name is Allegra Maggiora Mabrina. It's actually Allegra Sabrina Maggiora. We call her Mabrina now.

Anyways, the list could go on and on! Joel was working out on the rig on her actual birthday, so we went to the farm at Thanksgiving Point to celebrate her big day. We had a visitor from Italy (Rossella) visiting for two weeks so she came along. Joel met Rossella in Italy on his mission and we loved having her stay with us.



The Wagon Ride


Lunch

Crazy Alpaca! Joel wants to raise these and sell their wool.

Allegra loved feeding the animals.

She wanted a green cake.

Gianluca playing at the water structure at Thanksgiving Point. That thing was awesome!

Dress like a cow and get a free meal day at Chick-fila. Rosella said "Only in America" would people do something like this! :)

THE PRINCESS PARTY

Allegra loves Disney Princess ever since we went to Disney World this year. She has about 5 dress ups that we got for an awesome deal at Kid to Kid and she is constantly putting them on. We waited for Joel to come home before we had the party. Allegra had about 7 girls come and it was so fun! First up was decorating their crowns, then princess makeovers, a dance party, musical chairs, and then cake and opening presents. Lots of Barbies for presents. Side Note, she calls Barbies, Darbies. So funny. It was so much fun!


Some of the Princesses

Joel's fresh off the rig and me with no makeup. Looking good huh!

Joel painted her nails

Now the lipstick

And eyeshadow

Voila!

Allegra's best friend Allie

More princess fun

My Masterpiece! This took three seperate cakes! And lots of frosting!

Taste's yummy!

Good Times, Good Times!

More Disney Fun!

Here we are at our favorite beach in the world, Clearwater Beach. My family couldn't get over its white floury sand and crystal clear water. We ended the day by eating at Frenchy's
(known for it's yummy grouper sandwiches) and watching the sunset on
the beach. The kids didn't want to leave, so we decided our next family
trip will be to a beach next time.

This was our character breakfast with Minnie, Donald, and Goofy. It was a lot of fun.

Here we are at Disney Hollywood. This was also a blast, but if you are only going to go to one park, I don't recommend it. They Toy Story rides are fun and we also got to meet Micky Mouse,
but I don't have a picture of that for some reason. Oh andGianluca got lost again at this point making it a grand total of... ok just two times. Calvin was officially assigned to keep track of him at all times.

Here are some pictures of the girls meeting the princesses. I think the hour
long line was worth the wait. The girls were thrilled! It was so fun to
watch them!

We spent our last two days at Animal Kingdom and Epcot. We went to Animal Kingdom on
Mother's Day, which I'm not sure was such a great idea because it was
hot and miserable which made Allegra hot, miserable, crying, tired, and
wanted to be held all day! We didn't even make it to Mt.Kilimanjaro, Nemo, or Lion King. It was just plain crazy! We ended the day with a nice Mother's Day Dinner at the hotel because we were all too exhausted to do anything else! Maggie and Norberto came to join us for dinner.

Epcot was our last day and the entire day was a blast! It was a Monday so it
was not super crowded and it was kind of breezy as I recall. We all
loved going to "Under the Sea" where we got to talk with Crush the
turtle and he actually called on Reilly,Caden (Caydon as Crush pronounced it) and Shauna (Sha-na) their mom (Ryan's wife). It was super funny. We loved going to all of
the countries and trying out the different foods (By the way the
Japanese food was really expensive and crapy meat! But when we got the funnel cakes in America it made up for all of those grissely bits of chicken!), and the light show at the end was fabulous. Perfect end to a wonderful trip. I can't wait for the next one! I better start
saving my money now! Mom and Dad, thanks for helping us all out with
renting the cars and the $1,000! We love you!

Mutton Bustin

Saturday was South Jordan's Country Fest day. It was so much fun! Since Joel was out of town I hung out with my good friends Beka and Kent Madsen and their three kids. We went to the parade where the kids got way to much candy, then we went to the Mutton Bustin event where Allegra, Emmett, and Ollie did a stick pony race (Allegra came in dead last, no surprise with her granny run!) and then Gianluca and Tyse road the sheep. Tyse did well and probably lasted a good 5 seconds. Gianluca's sheep took off to the left and I'm not sure really what happend. All I know is Gianluca had a cut on his eye and said that the sheep stepped on his eye. He said "I curse mutton bustin! I never ever want to do that again!" So sad, since he was so excited to do it before. Well at least he got two $2 bills for his tramatic experience! However I'm pretty sure Joel is happy that his son does not want to lead the rodeo life. Joel has also vowed never to go to a rodeo in his life... Like father like son.

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Day One at Magic Kingdom

 

Magic Kingdom Fun

 

Girls getting their makeover

 

Cool Dude makeover... I don't know why I don't have any pictures of Calvin.

 

Crystal Palace

We just spent 3 weeks in Florida and it was amazing! The first week we spent at Disney World with my family. We flew out of SLC with all of my family on the same flight. It was a sight to behold. We should have worn matching t-shirts. It was like animal kingdom!But at least the kids were entertained! In total there was Mom and Dad; Kim and Syd and their five kids, Tyson (16), Zach (14), McKenzie (10), Sydnee (7), and Reagan (6); Ryan and Shauna and their four kids, Reilley (10), Calvin (7), Connor (6), and Caden (5), and us. My oldest sister Darci and her family were unable to make it and we missed them a great deal!

The first Day we spent at the Magic Kingdom. The kids loved it! We went on a bunch of rides ate overpriced park food and drinks, but it was fun. And for hearding cats, we stayed together the whole day. That evening we let the kids have a makeover at the Bippity Boppity Boo Boutique. It was so cute! AND way to expensive... well the boy's Cool Dude Makevoer wasn't. It was $7, but the girls... lets just not mention the price:) But the girls got the makeover, with makeup, glitter, fingernail polish, a sash and crown, a micky clip, and they looked gorgeous! I wanted to do the whole makeover where you let the girls pick out their princess dress, shoes, etc but that was over $180!!! It was ridiculous! The boys got paint in their hair spiked up and confetti. It was a pain to get out! But they liked it. Allegra's hair stayed perfectly for two days. You should have seen all of the goop they put in her hair!

After the Boutique we went for our dinner reservation at the Crystal Palace where we enjoyed a buffet with Tigger, Piglet, Eeyore, and Pooh. Tigger was a riot! We had hats for all of the kids to get autographed by the characters. Poor Calvin and Caden lost theirs towards the end of the trip. It was sad. We ended up closing out the park! When we got done with dinner, the park was closed and the only people around were security and staff. We took advantage and took some pictures in front of the castle. Then we missed the tram back to the parking lot, so we waited for a bus to drop us off, and then we had to hoof it for about a mile to the vans. Allegra lost her beloved blue blankey along the way! But all in all we had a wonderful time, ending the day at midnight!