A Visit to Anthony's School

I love the opportunity to go into my kid's school any chance I get. Anthony's class had a special mother's day tea party - it was so much fun!

singing songs for the Mommys

so proud of his painting!

First Tooth!

Anthony lost his first tooth on April 20th - a couple of months before his 6th birthday! Growing up so fast!

SOPHIA!

We celebrated Sophia's 8th Birthday last Sunday! She decided she wanted to have a "Taylor Swift" theme - - my response was, "you know this is just a family birthday party, right?" and then to myself, "how am I going to do this theme since there is no pre-packaged merchandise out there?!" So, we got creative and had some fun with it!

Thanks to our friend Tim, we had a customized birthday poster!

Cousins Georgia & Lily - it's great to have built-in friends in the family! :-)

Next year, little Wil will be at the kids table with them!

what a cutie Wil is - he changes so much every time we see him!

special birthday present from Daddy - he built her this picnic table for her American Girl dolls

I gave Sophia an ipod shuffle loaded with positive songs!

sewing machine & supplies from Grammy!

We now have an 8 year old! What?!!! That just seems so old!

Sophia is such an amazing little girl. I know I might be somewhat biased, but she truly is incredible. I have loved watching her come into her own this year - she has really developed some interests and talents. I don't want to forget about them, so please excuse me if this seems like a brag-fest...

She is a GREAT knitter! Her Grammy has taught her how to knit and it is incredible how good she is at it - she gave me a scarf that she has been working on for almost a year - she was so proud of her work and she should be! She has also begun to take an interest in sewing and that is another thing her Grammy is going to teach her. I told her that she needs to learn since I never did and then she can mend all of my stuff :-)

She has taken an interest in art and is really getting good at it! She just finished a 12-week art class and learned all about artists such as Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso, Cezanne and practiced painting in all of those styles. Here is her Cezanne-like work! I will definitely be framing this one.

She is absolutely crazy about music - she can hear a song 1 time and have it mostly memorized (takes after her Aunt Darla in that way!). That is why I've been taking some time to research some positive songs for girls. My favorite one that I found is by India Arie and it's called "Beautiful Flower"

Sophia loves to play school and says she wants to be a teacher when she grows up. She really likes to be in charge! She is a great big sister to Anthony and he is usually very happy to be her student. Sophia is also a fantastic reader - I am so happy that she loves to read so much - I look forward to the day when we can read the same books and discuss them - such a love of mine!

This year was also the first time Sophia and I had a mother-daughter shopping date! So much fun to just be with her one on one and shop and talk. We also went out to eat just the two of us and it was a great time of connecting - Jon and I really want to start doing more with the kids one on one.

I just love having a daughter so much! I am so thankful to God for blessing my life with Sophia - she truly is one of my favorite people to be with! Happy Birthday baby girl!

Best Babysitter EVER!

Our babysitter, Lisa, is in Uganda for 12 weeks (working in an orphanage) and we are missing her something terrible!!! She will be back in a couple of weeks and Sophia and I thought it'd be fun to do a post about her. Lisa has been with us since Anthony was 2 and Sophia was 4. She spends every weekday afternoon with the kids and they LOOOOOOOOOVE her!!!! While she is away, her mom is filling in for her and doing a great job...but we miss our Lisa!

She is the perfect mix of responsible & silly! :-)

While we know that we can't keep her forever, we sure wish we could! WE LOVE YOU LISA BISA!!!!

Another tree bites the dust....

Remember the tree I asked you to remember in my last post (last pic of last post)? Well, this is a pic of it now! :-(

We do not seem to have great luck with mature trees as they are disappearing one by one. So sad as it takes so long for them to grow. This tree just snapped in a bad wind storm. We were out to dinner with some friends and Jon's parents were babysitting and Sophia discovered it on our front porch! Thankfully no damage was done, other than losing phone/internet/cable for about 12 hours.

We haven't had the heart to cut it all the way down yet...hoping for miraculous regrowth?...

SNOW!!!!!!

Okay, I know it's April and beautiful outside, but I've gotten very behind in my blogging and so wanted to make sure I captured some pics from our biggest winter of snow EVER!

The kids spent a lot of time outside w/ the neighborhood kids - so thankful for that as I am not a big snow person! Besides, I technically did not get any "snow days" as I work from home regularly and cannot use the snow as an excuse!

Sledding with friend (almost neighbor!) Gracie

I love the way everything looks all covered with snow!

Remember this tree when you see my next post!

Crutches & Canes?

Due to Sophia's stint as Yoda, she became obsessed with her cane, from there it went to crutches...she started a craze in the neighborhood and now all of the girls have crutches (and Anthony has to get in on it too)...hey, hours of cheap entertainment!

Even the American girls have to get in on the action!
Oh and her obsession has extended to casts too....

Best Gift Ever

I don't know how my sweetheart is ever going to top this one!

So, a couple of years ago, Jon and I started talking about wanting to buy a piece of art for our home...but we wanted it to be something meaningful, we didn't want to buy something out of a catalogue, but rather something that we just fell in love with when we were visiting somewhere or maybe support a local artist...

Well, when we were in Italy this past spring, I took a photograph out the bus window when we were in Tuscany...I just loved this beautiful stone gate out in the middle of the countryside.

Jon had this great idea to take the photograph to a local art gallery and see if there was an artist who would paint it for us (oil on canvas)! Jon started working on this last October and wanted to give it to me for Christmas, but the artist did not want to rush it, so promised it to be ready for Valentine's Day (he did present his idea to me in a unique way on Christmas morning).

We got to pick it up yesterday and it far exceeds our expectations. We absolutely LOVE it!





Isn't he the sweetest?! :-)

Another WI visit

Well, not another separate visit, but another "visit" we got to have while in WI. My Aunt Dianne and Uncle Jerry live in WI as well and we were able to have lunch and a couple of hours with them. Over the years, I have celebrated many holidays with them and my cousins Jeremy and Jonny - and have many special memories of being with them at my grandparent's farm. Jon has had the chance to get to know them well too as they lived in FL when we lived in AL and we made several trips over to see them. So glad we had the chance to connect while there, even though it was short!

New Year's Eve - Party in Sun Prairie!!!!

While in WI, we were able to connect with our dear best friends, the Martys! It was almost 1 year to the date that we had last seen each other. They moved to Poland for 1 year, but are now back in the States - although they are halfway across the country from us (living in MN), it is still so good to have them "back". The kids had SO much fun together -they had spent 4 years living 1 hour apart and spending countless hours together, and it within 1 minute it was like they'd never been apart for the year!

sweet girlies

our football maniacs! :-)

BFFs

the men (and a sacked-out Anthony!)

We found a great suite right in Sun Prairie, a couple of minutes from Bethany's parents and rented it for New Year's Eve. We had a great time playing Guitar Hero, eating, swimming and just being together!

On a separate note, it was fun to go back to Sun Prairie (where I spent jr. high and highschool) and take the kids by my old house, church, school and drive around the town and see the changes. I hadn't been back in at least 6 years and a lot had changed. I also got to go back to my old place of employment and see some of the people I worked with 17 years ago! And it's always great to go back to Bethany's parents house and see them - they are like another set of parents to me and are always so welcoming to us!