No Turning Back!

The project has officially begun!

The first step was removing 3 very large trees from our backyard. It was sort of sad to watch them go - but 2 of them would have had to go even if we weren't adding on, as they were dying.

Our backyard sort of looks "naked" now :-)

We go to the township on 2/25 to get approval on our plans, so as long as there are no revisions needed, the actual addition should begin later that week or the following week!

Happy Love Month!

I love Valentine's Day! I know that a lot of people consider it a cheesy, commercial or even "forced" holiday (my husband used to be one of those people)...but ever since we've had kids, it has become a fun holiday for us as a family. I buy the kids Valentine's Day t-shirts, and after dinner, we do chocolate fondue and dance to Ol' Blue Eyes. The last couple of years, Sophia and I have each gotten a dozen roses (she definitely thinks VD is all about her, and maybe she's right!) :-)
Enjoy our playlist of favorite love songs!

Sophia lost her first tooth!

On Tuesday of last week (1/22), Sophia lost her first tooth! About a week or so prior, she came into our bed early one morning telling me that there was something weird on her tooth. I tried to put her off until the sun came up by telling her that her tooth was probably loose, but that actually made it worse because then she was so excited and just kept poking me and asking me to look at it. So, I felt it and sure enough it was loose! She let her babysitter, Lisa, pull it out last Tuesday. I was kind of bummed out to miss the event because I was away at a work meeting overnight, so Jon had to play the role of tooth fairy. I had wanted to get her a special Barbie or something to commemorate the first time she lost a tooth, but when I called Jon late Tuesday night he said he would "just throw a dollar under her pillow" or something like that. He ended up doing a little more than that - he also wrote her a note from the tooth fairy and that is what she was most excited about. He used markers that were in her room and she kept saying, "the tooth fairy must have been writing that note right by my bed because she used my markers!" She also noticed that the tooth fairy spelled her own name wrong (Tooth Fiary - Jon says to give him a break, he was in a rush!). Nothing gets by this girl!
I stopped on my way home on Wednesday and got her a Barbie, and I also ordered her a special tooth fairy doll to put her lost teeth in. But I truly think she was just as, if not more excited about the dollar and the note.
It's just crazy to think that she's already old enough to be losing teeth! Ahhh, where does the time go?!

A Busy Month

I have not had much time to blog lately. January is always a busy month for us, but this one has seemed even more so with Jon working several Sundays. My main purpose for setting up a blog was for my family and far-away friends to keep up with us and see pics of the kids, but sometimes I wish I had time to just write about random things. This past year at work, I took the "StrengthsFinder" - a questionnaire designed to reveal your top 5 strengths. One of mine is Communication. I especially enjoy written communications and I have the opportunity to do most of the communications for my department. But with working full-time, I just don't have as much time to blog as I would like!

Before Jon went back to work after Christmas break, we went to the PA Farm Show with Pop-Pop and Auntie Lizzie. The Farm Show is "the nation’s largest indoor agricultural exposition providing entertainment, great food and an opportunity to learn about livestock, cooking, machinery, and everything Pennsylvania agriculture".
Jon grew up going to the farm show every year and he loves sharing it with our kids. They went last year for the first time and begged me to take off work this year to go with them. Here are a couple of pics from our day. (We stood in line over an hour for these silly balloons!)

The other exciting thing going on in our lives right now is that we are about to start on a 2-story home addition project. We have been working towards this for a few years now and are finally ready to undertake this huge task. We are going to hire a contractor to do the bulk of the work, but Jon is probably going to do most of the finishing work. I will just play the role of decorator :-) I am excited to get to pick out paint, light fixtures, tile etc. We will be adding a family room and a 1/2 bath/laundry room downstairs and a master bedroom & bath upstairs. We were planning on starting this project this coming summer, but it's a good time for our contractor to get started, so we're going to go ahead and probably start in February or March. This will be good because Jon has off in the summer and will be able to work on the parts he is going to do. I'm sure as we go through this process I'll be posting lots of before/during/after pics!

Happy New Year!

Well, this post is going to be an update on the last couple of weeks. We had a great Christmas at home! We celebrated with Jon's family on Christmas Eve over at Grammy & Pop Pop's. It was so much fun this year as the cousins are getting older and enjoying each other more. Highlights included Georgia singing 'Jingle Bells' while in her new Dora undies (over her diaper and tights!), Pappy's homemade ravioli and the purses that Auntie Lizzie knit and felted for all the girls and their mommies. Here is a pic of the 5 cousins - Gordon, Sophia, Anthony, Lily & Georgia - we have yet to get a "good" picture of the 5 of them. Baby Gordon is very cooperative, but we've been trying to get one of the other 4 together since the little girls were babies, but it just doesn't seem to be in the cards! Actually, I love these pics because they're so real!

(click on any of these pics to view them larger)

And here's a pic of Sosi and Lils in their matching Christmas outfits:

Christmas morning was so much fun this year! Sophia & Anthony slept in until 9:00 a.m., but once they woke up, they were very excited to see if Santa had come.

They were both thrilled that they received what they had asked for; Sophia - a microphone to sing all of the High School Musical Songs (and Santa was kind enough to throw in both movies too!) and Anthony - a football helmet - he didn't specify what kind so Daddy put in a special request for it to be the Dallas Cowboys. Anthony is somewhat confused about his allegiance as the other day he wore his Cowboys pants and his Eagles jersey! However, if you ask him who his favorite team is, he will always say "The Vikings" (thanks a lot Truman! Truman is his little buddy who hails from MN) The Packer fan in me cringes each time he makes this declaration! Thankfully, Uncle Jer and Aunt Erin are helping me in my quest to shape Sophia & Anthony into Philadelphia Eagles fans! While on break, we had the opportunity to get together with several friends that we don't get to see often enough. My friend Kelly (my very first Pennsylvania friend!) and I reinstated an old tradition of getting together to bake Christmas cookies - we did this together several years pre-kids but have not been able to make it happen the last couple of years. We baked 5 kinds of cookies and made some nut brittle in under 6 hours (it helps that she has 2 ovens)! Jon and the kids came and joined us that evening when Orazio (her husband) got home and we had dinner together and spent the night there. Every time we go to their house for dinner, we always have to leave earlier than we're ready to part and always talk about spending the night some time and finally did it this time (we live about 1 hour apart). Baby Orazio was with us all day and cooperated beautifully by taking a very long nap and then sitting contentedly in his highchair while we finished up (it helped that we kept giving him cookies!). We also got to go back the next week and help celebrate Orazio's 1st birthday! I love one-year-olds! He is such a cutie and such a good baby!

We also got to be with our friends Greg, Tricia, Lexie and Noah for an evening. We had a great time being in their home, sharing a meal together and sampling some of the great Christmas cookies that Tricia made. Our girls are such great playmates and our boys are getting there too! Our time together always goes too fast!

Our friends Rick, Alicia & Gracie also had us over for a great meal (hmmm, I'm just realizing that we were the ones being treated to all the meals this time, so we'll have many favors to return!) and we had a great time with them. Gracie loves Sophia and Anthony and always calls them "friends" - it's too cute!
Jon and Rick watched the historical Patriots/Giants game after I took the kids home to bed.


Oh, I just realized that we actually did make a meal for someone! Before Bethany, Quenton, Eden, Truman and Briar left for WI for the holidays, we had our annual Christmas celebration together and we made baked ziti! Ok, I'm feeling better about myself now :-) Oh, and we were going to have Jer, Erin and Lily over for dinner but they got sick - - okay, now I'm just trying to convince you that we're not freeloaders!


Since Jon and I were off for so long and did not travel, we were able to get so much done around the house. I cleaned out the kitchen - emptying every cabinet and drawer and wiping them out and sorting things. In addition, I cleaned out the pantry and the refrigerator. Jon got smoke detectors up and running and did some other little things around the house. I also used the time to create some charts for Sophia & Anthony that I've been thinking about doing since I read about the idea on one of my friends' blog. For lack of a better description, I call them "Good Behavior Charts" - basically just a way to help reinforce good habits and values. We haven't fully fleshed out the rewards system yet since this is the first week we are doing it, but we are thinking of having a prize box that they can draw a piece of paper out of, and on most would be activities to do as a family such as play a game, go to a movie etc. We also want to give them small amounts of money for the values they exhibit (we don't want to "pay" them for the tasks). We think this will give us an opportunity to teach them about money too. Any other suggestions?
Our New Year's Eve was nice and quiet. We had some plans with friends that fell through and although we were disappointed to not see them, we ended up having a great night at home just the 4 of us. We played games with the kids, made chocolate fondue and watched "The Princess Bride". They almost made it up 'til midnight, but were both asleep by 11:30. Earlier in the day, we went up to my Aunt Debbie's to celebrate Christmas with her and our cousins Carly, Austin & Andrew. Debbie's sisters girls were there for the 2nd year in a row and we had our second annual Mexican fiesta - we also got to celebrate Carly's birthday. It was a good time together!

Well, for those of you actually still reading this, thanks for hanging in there. I don't usually write such long posts, but it's been awhile...

Happy New Year!!!

Merry Christmas!

In lieu of sending out Christmas cards this year, we are wishing you a Merry Christmas via our blog! Now I know this will not win me any "Miss Manners" awards, but I hope you will read on and see the reason behind it.

During this advent season, our church has been a part of the "Advent Conspiracy" - a movement trying to change the focus of Christmas from the consumerism it has become in America, to a holy event of worship and giving to those in need. One of the things we decided to spend less on this year was Christmas cards - and believe it or not, this was a hard one for me to give up because I truly do enjoy sending them out each year. But we were able to take the money that we normally spend on cards/photos/postage (along with money saved on spending less on some other things) and give it to a cause that we are passionate about - HOPE International.

Even before we heard of the Advent Conspiracy through our church, my Mom suggested to our family that instead of getting gifts for each other, we could combine our money and give it to the orphanage where my nephew Caleb lived before my brother Danny and his wife Kristen adopted him about a year ago this time. Everyone loved this idea and it was such an act of worship to give to these dear people that cared so lovingly for our little Caleb Eyobel. Thanks again Mom for inspiring us to do what for me was one of the highlights of the Christmas season.

This year, we will not make it out to Wisconsin to celebrate with our loved ones there. To you all - - we miss you, love you very much and plan to be with you again next year!

And to all of our dear family and friends, we wish you a quiet, stress-less, holy Christmas and invite you to take part in the Advent Conspiracy by worshipping more, spending less, giving more, and loving all. We have found it to be truly refreshing, and think you will too.

We love you! Merry Christmas!

Love,

Jon, Dawn, Sophia & Anthony

p.s. please leave us a comment to let us know you stopped by!

Sharing Christmas

My friend Megan is hosting a "tour of homes" on her blog. Basically she has asked all of her blogging friends to give others a peak into their holidays. Decorations, traditions, favorite recipe etc. So, here is my attempt to share what we do for Christmas...

Decorations - we don't do too much besides our tree. But each year we get a real tree from a tree farm - that's a must for us!

Our tree is pretty traditional - decorated with ornaments that have special meaning to us - many of them given to us by family and friends. I also love to get an ornament anytime we travel somewhere special. Here is my current favorite ornament, purchased during our Christmas in NYC weekend.

3 years ago, I got these great little Christmas trees for Sophia & Anthony. They love to decorate them each year and put them in their rooms. There are so many great little ornaments out there and I get them some each year. Sophia's tree is filled with Disney princesses, Hello Kitty, Strawberry Shortcake, Dora etc. and Anthony's tree is filled with basketballs, footballs, soccer balls, Scooby Doo etc.

Two other special decorations are our Nativity set and our stockings, both given to us by Jon's mom (she knit the stockings which makes them really special).

Traditions - usually we split our Christmas holiday between home and Wisconsin, where my family is. This year we will not be going to WI - we are sad to not see my family, but just needed a break from traveling this year. We are a pretty young family, so we are still developing some of our own traditions. Going to a tree farm to get our tree the weekend of Thanksgiving is becoming one of those. If we are home on Christmas Eve, that is the time we celebrate with Jon's family. Most years we have attended our Christmas Eve service but have missed a couple due to babies or being in WI. If we are home on Christmas Eve/Day, Santa comes Christmas Eve and we open gifts in the a.m. If we are in WI, we have to get creative and celebrate before or after - which hasn't been too hard yet since our kids haven't known dates - but they are starting to track things like that, so the next few years will be tricky! Oh, one more thing about Santa - our kids are only allowed to ask him for one thing each - we decided that we don't want Santa getting all the credit! :-) and we don't want to place too much emphasis on Santa - it is something fun to do, but we don't want that to detract from the real meaning of Christmas.

Well, sitting down and trying to write out our traditions is making me realize that we don't really have that many - we'll have to work on that over the next few years!

Recipes - Those of you that know us well, know that we love good food! Jon always makes a trip down to the Italian Market on Christmas eve to get some great Italian cheeses, sausage, pepper shooters etc. Pappy (Jon's dad) makes homemade ravioli for Christmas. When we are in WI, we all take turns making special meals for each other so that my sister Deann, who hosts, doesn't have to do all the cooking - Jon and I usually make our current favorite recipe for them. I always try to make Christmas cookies to share with co-workers, neighbors and family. I will post my all-time favorite Christmas cookie recipe - Ricotta cookies. I guess they are not officially a Christmas cookie, but this is the only time of year I make them, so that's what they are to me. Oh, and it's not "my" recipe, I got it out of a Better Homes and Garden cookbook (just want to give credit where credit is due!) Here it is:

Ricotta Cookies:

• 2 c. sugar
• 1 c. butter, softened
• 3 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 4 c. flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 15-ounce carton ricotta cheese

Beat the sugar and butter with an electric mixer on med. to high speed until combined. Add the eggs and vanilla; beat until creamy. Add half of the flour, the baking soda and salt; beat until well blended. Stir in the remaining flour and the ricotta cheese. Drop by rounded tablespoons onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for about 12 min. or until the bottoms of the cookies are browned. The cookie tops should not brown. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

Frosting:

• 3-ounce package cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 c. butter, softened
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 c. powdered sugar
• Ground nutmeg (optional, but recommended!)

Beat together the cream cheese, butter and vanilla until light and fluffy. Gradually add the powdered sugar; mix well. Spread the frosting on the cooled cookies. If desired, sprinkle with ground nutmeg. Store the frosted cookies, covered, in the refrigerator.

Well, there you have it - a peak into our Christmas. I hope you enjoyed it and for those of you in Megan's "tour", I'm looking forward to checking out your homes and traditions!

Christmas in NYC!

We just got back from an AMAZING weekend (actually less than 24 hours) in NYC! Going with Jon to NYC in December is something I've been wanting to do for years now - and it was even more special because we got to share it with our best friends Bethany and Quenton! We got into the city around 8:30 on Saturday night and walked from Times Square to Rockefeller Plaza - it is so much fun to be in the city at night - especially around the holidays! We got in line for ice-skating around 9:30 and didn't get on the ice until 10:55!! It was so worth the wait though as it was such a magical experience! We saw 3 marriage proposals and had such a blast skating. I had been looking forward to skating because it's such an NYC experience, but I didn't realize I would enjoy it so much - I thought I'd be hanging onto Jon for dear life - but it was easier than I remembered!! We got off the ice around midnight and walked to a Starbucks for some late-night refreshment and then got to Jon's sisters (where we were staying - thanks again Lizzie!!) around 2:00 a.m. - we crashed until 6:00 and were out the door again by 7:00 because we had tickets to the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular at 9:00! We went to the show - which was as its name implies - SPECTACULAR!!! The Rockettes are just so amazing and it was so much fun to see them live after all these years of watching them on TV!! Bethany and I each bought a really special ornament of the Rockettes which I'll love putting on my tree every year and remembering this weekend! The other amazing thing about the show was that they did a Live Nativity and actually read Scripture and sang Christmas carols about Jesus - so cool that they still do that!! After the show, we went out for a great brunch at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square and then headed home around 3:00 - - we were SO tired but we had such a great time!!!

Thanksgiving

This was such a wonderful week! Jon and I both had off work the entire week and we had a great time just being home together. We made no plans except to be with our extended family on Thanksgiving day. We got so much done around the house - cleaned out the garage, organized the kids' clothes, and went through paperwork - not the most exciting things to do on vacation, but we have such a sense of accomplishment.

Last weekend, we went to visit some friends from college, Brian & Cristina, and had such a great time. We were there over Jon's birthday and they helped us celebrate - our kids had such a great time - they did not want to leave! There's nothing like getting reconnected with old friends!

We are thankful for so many things - most of all for Jesus and for our family, health and friends. We feel so blessed and have really had our eyes opened in this past year as to what we can do to bless others. Our trip to the Dominican Republic in March was life-changing and we are hoping that 2008 is going to be a year we are stretched in the area of giving to others.

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

SCC Concert

Last night Jon and I had a night out without the kids (Thanks Grammy and thanks to my pastors for being cool with me missing a Leadership Team Meeting so I could enjoy this night out)! We went with Kyle & Kim and Bethany & Q to see Steven Curtis Chapman. I have been a big SCC fan since high school when his album "More to this Life" came out. Jon and I have a lot of memories tied to SCC music - hearing any song from "The Great Adventure" or "Heaven in the Real World" takes us back to Pills (college) in a second! I always think of Scott Leffler singing "Saddle Up Your Horses" in the cafeteria or of blasting that CD in my dorm room with Bethany! We also went to the "Signs of Life" concert when we lived in AL in '96 and any of those songs take us back to that time in our lives. His "Music of Christmas" CD is a favorite we have to play every year when we're putting up our tree. We only saw him in concert that one time in '96 (wow - 11 years ago!) and haven't bought any of his albums since "Speechless" in '99 - I was just looking on his web site and saw that he's put out 7 albums since we last bought one - geez, time goes fast when you're buying a house and having babies!! Anyway, it was so cool to be at this concert because his two sons are on tour with him. His 18 year old son Caleb plays the guitar and sings backup and his 16 year old son Will Franklin plays the drums - he is amazing! Bethany and I got our picture with him and I was telling him to not be afraid of the 30 year old groupies :-) It was really a great concert - both entertaining and spiritually challenging. SCC has a great heart for adoption - he has adopted 3 little girls from China and he has such a passion to help the orphans of the world. Hearing him talk about adoption reminded me again of how proud I am of my brother and his wife - they felt called to adopt a little boy from Ethiopia and last year in December they traveled over there and brought Caleb home - he has been such a joy to our family!