Back to School

(click on this pic to see the toothless grin up close!) :-)

Sophia started 1st grade on Monday! Our school district decided to go with uniforms this year - I was not particularly thrilled, but I have to admit, she looks pretty cute! The first day of school is getting easier for me now that she has couple of years under her belt...but Anthony starts pre-K on Thursday - that one will probably be a little tough!

Heroes? Idols? Inspirational!

I had a hard time knowing how to title this post - it may be going too far to say that the Chapman family are my heroes or my idols, but for sure they have inspired me! Did any of you see the Larry King Live interview with them last week? This is a family that has gone through a horrible tragedy, yet are closer and stronger than before. Their love for each other and their faith in God just shines through them. These are the kind of Christians I want to be associated with - they are so genuine. There are so many negative portrayals of Christians in the media, and frankly it's probably because so many Christians are weird (or fake, or power hungry, or hypocritical...fill in the blank). But the Chapmans are the real deal - they are normal people that have been given an extraordinary amount of talent and an extraordinary burden to bear, and they are doing it with extraordinary grace. Steven and Marybeth must be so proud of their 3 children that were interviewed along with them - they were so mature and showed such wisdom. I love that the whole family got tattoos of Maria's name to help them in the grieving process...I love that they are planning on having a blast at Emily's wedding in October - dancing together and celebrating life and love....I love that Marybeth said that she doesn't care who is touched by this story, she just wants Maria back - that is just such a real comment that any mom can identify with (actually she said that on the Good Morning America interview) . Watching the interview of this family really made me think about the values that I want to instill in my children and the kind of bond that I want to have with them during their teenage/early adult years and beyond. I think we're going to be hearing a lot of great things about the Chapman family over the years.

Another Beach Trip!

We had so much fun at the beach on Friday, that we decided to go back Monday! This time we tagged along with the Marty's on their mini-vacation. It was great to have their hotel room just a block or so off the boardwalk so we could all get freshened up to go on the boardwalk at night after our day in the sun. Another day of beautiful weather and fun with great friends!!


The girlies


The buds


D and B

While on the beach, Sophia lost her other front tooth!!! How "6 years old" is this smile?! ;-)




Boardwalk Fun!

Ski/DiCo Annual Beach Trip!

This was our 4th year to go to OCNJ with our good friends Greg, Tricia, Lexie and Noah! (...of course the first year Noah was inutero!) A couple of the years we have spent the night down there, but this year we just did a day trip. We were blessed with perfect weather again (4 years running) and just a wonderful time of enjoying the sun and ocean, as well as the boardwalk and food. Here are some of our favorite pics of the day.

From the Beach:








From the Boardwalk:

Summer Update

So, it has been about 6 weeks since I've blogged! I don't know where the summer has gone. Mostly I haven't blogged because I lost a huge amount of pictures that were on my camera from when Darla and Jeff (sister & brother-in-law) came to visit :-( and then we've been having computer issues the last couple of weeks.

So, here are some pics of some of the things we've been up to...

Good times with cousins Georgia, Gordon & Lily

The 3 DiCo brothers and wives got to have a triple date (chip & putt) thanks to Grammy & PopPop watching all 5 grandkids! We had such a great time; we have to make a point of doing that more often!














Jeff and Darla came to visit July 3-8! We had not seen each other in over a year and a half - WAY TOO LONG! It was so much fun to catch up! We celebrated a cold, rainy 4th of July - but it was a good break from the Texas heat for them! Our friends the Z's and the Marty's came over too - it was our 4th year in a row to celebrate the 4th together and it has rained all 4 years - what are the chances?!! (All of my pics from the 4th got deleted!) :-(
UPDATE: Thankfully Bethany had a couple of pics from the 4th - here is our gang - like I said this was our (DiCos/Martys/Zs) fourth 4th of July to celebrate together - I should try to find pics from all 4 years to show how our kids have all grown (especially Ashley!) :-)

(spending the 4th in the garage due to the rain!)


We also went to NYC for a day - Jeff had never been there - and since my parents are there for the summer, we thought it would be a fun place to meet up - they also hadn't seen Jeff & Darla in over a year! Here are some pics of that fun day!










Jeff & Darla - thank you so much for taking the time and money to come see us! We had a great time and miss you so much already! XO!


A couple weekends ago, we got to go to the beach with our friends Tom, Shelby and Thomas. Unfortunately, neither of us brought a camera, so we don't have any pics, but we had such a great time! We became friends with the R.'s about a year ago and have really enjoyed getting to know them. Going away on overnight trips always takes the friendship to the next level and this was no exception! We have a couple of other beach day trips planned this coming weekend - one with the Ski's and one with the Marty's - it is so great to live close enough to the beach to go down for a day!

This past weekend, I went up to visit Elizabeth (Jon's sister) in NJ for the weekend - it was a fun, relaxing kids-free weekend. Shan and Erin were going to try to come with me but it didn't work out, so we're planning a sister-in-law weekend for Labor Day weekend - we're going to go into NYC and take a harbor cruise to see the waterfalls (only there until October). It should be fun and hopefully I'll have my camera working again by then!

So, there's an update on our summer - Jon, Sophia and Anthony are very tan from their many days spent at the pool and Sophia has pretty much learned how to swim this summer - she even jumps off the diving board! Anthony has started going in the shallow end w/out water wings! Oh, Sophia is also about to lose her other front tooth - I will be sure to post pics of the toothless grin when it happens!

Happy Birthday Anthony!

Wow! Today our baby is 4! I was thinking about how much I love being Anthony's mom - it is such a different experience to have a boy when your first born is a girl. I am so glad we are getting to experience it. He is such a boy - he loves to wrestle, play with trucks, balls and pretend he's fighting with whatever is handy - but yet, he is so sweet and mushy too - from the day he was born, he was that kind of baby that just melts into you and loves to cuddle. Anthony loves his big sister and has played many "girl" games (see pic of him in ballerina costume), but I think his favorite person to be with is his Daddy. Any time Jon is around, Anthony is all over him - and Jon spends a lot of time on the floor with him wrestling (and getting lots of kisses at the same time!). Anthony has lots of nicknames (but not Tony!) - when he was a baby, Sophia started calling him Nino and then morphed into Nins and Ninster and then we started calling him Bubba, which has stuck and also morphed into Bubbs, Bubbalicious and even Delicious. Ahhh, we love him so much!!!

Summer!

Finally! It's pretty much here! Sophia has her last day of school on Monday and Jon has been done for over a week.

I love summer! I wish I had off work though - it's so hard to be the only one that has to go to work :-( But, I come home to dinner every night :-)

I love country music - but especially in the summer! There are so many great songs that just sound like summer to me. I was talking about country music to Bethany recently (she's not a fan) and was telling her that what I love about it is that so many of the songs tell great stories and they express love in so many different ways - not just romantic love, but love between friends, parents and their children etc. ... and, it's nice to hear romantic songs that don't have to use the words "shorty" or "boo" :-)

Enjoy the playlist - you just might become a fan!

Prayer for SCC and family

Many of you have probably heard about the tragedy that has befallen the Steven Curtis Chapman family (if not, click here). For some reason, this has hit me really hard. First of all, as a parent, I can't even imagine the grief they are feeling (and this type of accident has always been such a personal fear of mine). Second, as a fan of SCC and his music, I just feel so personally touched by this - maybe it's part of being part of the body of Christ - we weep with those who weep. I started thinking about some of the songs that he has written and hope that he and his family can take comfort in them now. SCC is originally from Paducah, KY and when there was a school shooting there, he wrote a song, "With Hope" for the families in that tragedy. I'm sure he never dreamed how the words would be so applicable to his own life at the time. I have prayed for them so many times over these last couple of days and know that in a couple of hours, they will be having the viewing, and tomorrow the memorial service for their precious little Maria. Please pray for this family during this terribly difficult time.

Jeremy & Erin's Wedding

Jeremy & Erin got married this past Friday, May 2nd. It was a beautiful day and a perfect wedding! Everything about it was so much fun and memorable. I loved their music and so as you view the slideshow you can enjoy some of the songs they had as the soundtrack of their day. We are so happy to have Erin in our family!!