Our artists

On Sunday we went out to breakfast after Mass. The restuaraunt (diner type) that we like to go to when we do go out has white paper placemats. And since mom always has crayons in hte diaper bag, we usually color. While I was teaching Bell how to color a sun and a person, Asutin was using his 60 second sketching he has been doing in Art class at school to color Bell. She was wearing her gold and black Saints jacket. Take a look.................

Cool, right?

Here is Bell's very first drawing on her own!!! I started the sun for her and she did the rest of it (the very straight lines are mine :)), and then she drew some flowers on the left, and Austin on the right. This is hte first time she has drawn a person!! (Proud mamma!!)
Here is a close up of Austin!!
Daddy drew a school bus on Lina's mat and she colored it purple.

My artists!!!

I figure if daddy ever needs a part time job he can become a hairdresser. Last week he cut Bells hair and yesterday gave Lina some rockin ponies!!

OK, you can't see daddies smile in this pic, but you can see it goes right up to his eyes!! Boy, he loves his little girls.

Look what I got mom!!

I finally got a table top sewing machine. The old in table Singer I had jsut never worked right!! I bought it at Goodwill for $20, and could bring it back in 10 days if it didn't work. I had a problem with it and tracked it down to the bobbin track. Don figured out it was in backwards and voila!! Works like a charm and is in great shape, so I made a cover for it and a bag for the foot pedal to refresh my sewing skills.

It is not a big name machine, but works great and does zig zag, overcasting and even button holes and buttons!

Happy Day

HAPPY SAINT PATRICKS DAY!!!!!

Kids can be so funny!!

Lina:
Lina was trying to get out of going to bed the other night by snuggling up to daddy!! She was all about mommy that night until I told her bedtime, then she said "I daddy" and went right into his arms!! Toddlers!

Bell:
We were in the car listening to a CD of kids songs and there is a song called "There's a present in the potty and it won't go down" (yep, about just what it sounds like!). Well the whole song played and when it was over and quiet, Bell says "Barack Obama". When I asked her what she was talking about she said " Barack Obama, he is the PRESENT, just like in the song". Austin and I were rolling on hte floor!! At least she knows who the president is!! Preschoolers!

Austin:
Last week track practice started, and they practice at the local public high school. The coach arranged for the older kids who drive to drive the younger ones over to practice, so I only need to pick him up after practice. So on the first day, my cell phone rings and it is Austin. Apparently there were 5 kids in the car and none of them knew how to actually GET to practice! They had been driving around and were lost. Teenagers!

Don:
So last Monday I went to bed and he was still up, and at 2 AM I feel him shaking me awake. Well he had just opened his e-mail and gotten his "Welcome Aboard - your offer letter is on the way" e-mail. And felt he needed to share at 2AM!! (But really I was VERY happy:) Daddies! - Yes they can be kids too.

I LOVE my family.

There are days, and then there are DAYS.....

And yesterday was one of the DAYS kind!

Well Don got his official offer letter yesterday - Yeah!!! Start date of March 30th.

So he drove up to PA and gave his boss his resignation letter - another yeah!!

And then yesterday evening we bought a car (busy day). It is a 99 Chevy Suburban SLT, leather, power window,seat,locks, tow hitch, 3rd row, new tires and new exhaust. In great shape with very good mechanic history. If you want to know what kind of engine, or anything like that - you will need to talk to Don :)
We have been searching for awhile for one, and so with a lot of research we bought this sight unseen on Ebay !!! Yes, people do actually buy cars on Ebay. Don spoke with the man last night for an hour and we think it is going to be a good buy. Oh yeah, the car.... it is in Virginia!! So Don is going down Thursday to pick it up. Don turns in his work vehicle next Wednesday and we needed a car that would fit hte whole family!

And to round out our busy (and expensive!!) day, we had a trip to the emergency vet last night. But not for one of our dogs. Our neighbors just got a puppy, and JD came down to give something to Austin and brought the dog. Except it was late, dark and I was not expecting him to be knocking on the door, and didn't even think about the puppy!
So when JD knocked on the door, I could see him and opened the door to tell him to come in. Of course the dogs were excited (they are whenever anyone comes to the door) and went out. I did not know this was a problem until the puppy started yelping. Well apparently one of our dogs did not like going out and finding an unfamiliar animal right outside the door and took a bite out of the puppy (we don't know which one it was!).
So a ride to the vet with a dog that throws up in cars (and did in Don's), an emergency room visit, anasesia and stitches, we are $350 poorer!! Never mind that because it was a bite the hospital had to call animal control. So our dogs are quarintined for 10 days. They can not be around anyone but family, and have to be on a leash when outdoors for the whole 10 days, with someone over 18 years old!!! What a PITA!!!!!!!!!!!!! Austin looks 18, right?????

Maybe today will be less eventful.....................

Pics of the "burb"

Our little Chef...

Bell loves to cook! Sunday morning we were making waffles (in my waffle maker that I LOVE - THANKS Daddy) for the family and eggs for daddy - no waffles for daddy :(. Everytime I cook Bell wants to pull over a chair and play assistant chef, see for yourself.....

"Help, I can't reach the eggs"

"Got them"!! She was doing double duty filling up the batter mix cup for the next waffle and helping to break eggs - only a few shells to pick out :)

Bell is mixing the eggs, mide you, she didn't actually EAT any, look further......

Lina and Bell enjoying the waffles (you can just see Bells clownface in this picture).

And the red around the mouth (and watery eyes and sneezing) - just from scrabling daddies eggs!! No problem actually injesting them, but skin contact gets her but good!!! Peanut Butter too....

And then on to the tea party.

Bell lvoes her new tea set from Grandma Barry - of course it really is a "water only" set as there are lots of spills!! But so far the only dish that has been a casualty was the one Mommy broke - poor Bell she got so upset!

Grandma had been saving a little China tea set for her, and she had so much fun playing with Granma's cups when we were in NY, that Grandma gave it to her with a beautiful little tea pot to go with them. Thanks Grandma!!!!

The weather it is a changin'

Bell and Lina with our freinds Brad and heathers granddaughter - OK I don't know how to spell her name Airiodni?? - we just call her "Rodney" for short!!

OK, so the last post was 10 inches of snow, and a few days later we were out on the deck (Saturday night) inshort sleves roasting marshmellows and making somores!! Wacky.

Like mother, like daughter, she loves marshmellows!!!

hte

If you read my blog a lot you will see that I have a problem typing the word THE. I always forget to spell check the Blog as it is not automatic (when I type in word I ALWAYS have spell check on!!). They say our brains are trained to read right over words that are spelled wrong, so maybe no one notices it but me :)
hte end....

Snow day #2

Delaware is a little slow in the snow removal department. So the kids got off again today from school!! So today was a good day to go sledding, though the hill was a little sparse by the time we got to it, but that was OK, the girls had a great time!! There are not many hills in flat DE to choose from in our area.

Bell tried sledding with Austin on his big sled, but got a face full of snow. So she and Lina rode together on the little sled, with mommy pulling them up the hill. It was pretty cold out, but they had a fun time.

Update on the job hunt....

Don has a second interview with teh hiring manager for hte Rockland County job. Actually it is hte same man he already met with who asked him to come back up Thursday to meet with him and go to lunch, so we have hopes there is an offer coming........... as soon as we know anything we will share :))))

In like a Lion.....

March 1st brought us the most snow we have seen since we have been here in Delaware!! In New York on Sunday we were watching the weather to see what was up. The snow was coming up the coast, and expected to start in DE about 4 pm, so I ended up having to skip going to Grandma and Grandpa Tuscanos on the way home to get home before the snow. We did well, as it just started snowing as we pulled onto our blcok. Good thing we did, as we ended up with about 10 inches here, and our electric was out for about 5 hours last night. No school today (or tomorrow for that matter) here, so Austin took the girls out to play in the snow. It probably took more time for us all to get dressed and undressed than we were out, because it was COLD out!!!

Danielle's Party

We had a fun weekend in New York. My neice Danielle turned 21 and had a big party this weekend, so we traveled north for the weekend. It was great becasue we got to see everyone, which is rare. The kids ran around like crazy at the party with their cousins!! Bell and Grandpa playing with the balloons.

Emily, Bell, Katie and Lina.

Lina really took to Katie by the end of the night.

Austin sacking out at the end of the party while the girls were still going strong....

Bell conversing with the birthday girl (in her orange fuzzy slippers).

Bell wanted that birthday cake SOOOO bad!!

And would not leave it until she got the first piece!! And there is Lina in the bottom of the photo grabbing up some carrots. She is hysterical with raw carrots! She chews on one, and then spits out hte peices. Thyen she goes tright back and grabs another one and does it again, over and over!! She loves cooked carrots, but try as she may she just does not get the texture of raw ones.

Poor Aunt Denise, all she got into the picture was her arms!

Ahhh, there she is. The birthday girl with mom and dad. Wow is that almost a smile on Daves face, we can never get a picture of him smiling!!

Uncle Steve playing with Angelina at Grandma and Grandpas house.

Gianna, Lina and Grandpa hanging out.