Farewell (N POZEGNANIE) Dear Friends

Tonight we are getting together with our friends, the Martys, for the last time while they are PA residents. We've always known this day would come, but that doesn't make it any easier to say goodbye! Four years ago in October, we were unexpectedly and pleasantly blessed with the gift of living close to each other. Bethany and I met in jr. high and immediately clicked - we've been best friends for over 21 years now. We met Quenton & Jon in college and the 4 of us went through our early dating years together. After both getting married in '96, we went our separate ways, never believing we'd ever get to live near each other again (but always holding out HOPE!). Eight years later, we got that chance when Quenton's job with HOPE International brought them to within an hour of us.

Over these past four years we have created so many special memories. When they moved here we vowed that we wouldn't let this time pass us by and end up with a bunch of "if onlys" or "we should haves". We made so much effort to not let the hour drive be a deterrent from getting together as much as we could - and it was worth every minute and every $ of gas! Our friendship as couples has grown so much over these years and it has been a great joy to watch our children grow into the best of friends. We have built the foundation for a life-long friendship for our families, regardless of the distance between us.

Quenton, Bethany, Eden, Truman & Briar, we love you so much and will miss you immensely! You are going to leave a big hole in both our hearts and our calendars. We wish God's richest blessings on you as you begin this next phase of your amazing journey in POLAND! We admire your faith and sense of adventure!

So many of our special memories include the Z's and so they are in many of these pics! DMZ gatherings just won't be the same without you! Enjoy this slideshow that captures many of our fun times together!

With much love,
Jon, Dawn, Sophia & Anthony

AAAAAARGH! Halloween Was Sad!

I am all about the costumes on Halloween...so I was very disappointed when we woke up Friday morning and Anthony was very sick! You know a kid is sick when they don't want to go trick-or-treating! We had such great plans for that day too. I had a 1/2 day off work, the kids were off school, it was beautiful weather and we were supposed to attend our 1st Annual DiCo Cousins Halloween Extravaganza at Joel & Shannon's! Sophia headed over with Grammy, PopPop and Aunt Lizzie while Anthony and I laid in the dark house and hid from the trick-or-treaters! She was a great big sister (as always!) and brought home candy for her Bubba.

Since the kids had such fun costumes, I decided to dress them up today and get some pics. Enjoy the pics of our pirate and gypsy!

AAARGH FACES:



and check this out...(I'm not a very crafty/creative person, so I am proud that I "made" this shirt)

12 Years of Wedded Bliss

On October 12, Jon and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary! It does not seem like that is possible, but we did get married pretty young, so I guess it is!

Our dear friends Bethany and Quenton offered to take our kids for TWO nights! It was so nice to have time to be just the two of us. We went to a movie one night and then headed up to Lancaster for an overnight stay at The Lancaster Arts Hotel. We would highly recommend it, along with the restaurant in the hotel - John J. Jeffries. Downtown Lancaster city is really cool - full of cafes, coffee shops and art galleries. Not what you think of when you think of Lancaster! We had beautiful weather - just like the day of our wedding - and a great time together.

No pictures from our great weekend because we lost our battery recharger for our camera and are having trouble finding the time to go get a new one!

Thanks B&Q for taking our kids - it was such a nice offer and it's great to be able to go away and know your kids are having a great time. Thanks for the hotel recommendation too.

Happy Anniversary Jon - I love you!

Anthony's First (Ever) Day of School!

Well, our pre-school days are over! :-( Our baby boy is now officially a school boy! He goes to pre-K every day in the afternoon! The first day was a little bit bittersweet as Jon and I dropped him off and went home to a quiet house.

A couple of pics of big sis getting him excited for his first day!














And here he goes...bye Baby Boy (for 2 hours and 45 minutes) :-)




(I can't believe it's taken me so long to get this post up - sorry to those of you that have been checking so much since I told you it would be up the day he went to school for the first time (last Thursday, August 28). We have had all sorts of computer problems and I have not been able to get on here. It might be awhile until my next post as well!)

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!