Papa Guido's Funeral

Last Saturday, during our birthday celebrations, my grandpa passed away at 92 years old.  His health started to decline around Thanksgiving where he had an infection in his legs and became bed-ridden, which resulted in pneumonia and ultimately moved out of his apartment and into a hospital.  His quality of life had become difficult so it was time to move on.  

Serafino Guido led an interesting life.  He was born in San Fili Cosenza, Italy.  When he was 2 year old, he took a boat to the US into Ellis Island.  He told me the story of how he didn't have any money and ate the scraps of food in order to get by.  His family settled into Port Chester, New York.  He had 3 brothers and 1 sister.  All of his family proceeded him except for his younger brother, Patsy.  I met his sister and younger brother in New York five years ago when I was in the New York area for a work project and it was neat to see the neighborhood and church where he grew up.  Papa joined the marines just before he turned 16 years old but lied about his age in order to get in.  

When he was stationed in San Francisco area, he met my grandmother, Bertie, on a trolley.  It is a bit ironic since Andy and I met at a bus stop.  They married and then my mother was born in Sacramento and shortly after they moved to Arkansas where Bertie's family was from.  They had another baby, my uncle Joe, and at a later point divorced and he moved back to New York.  In the 1980's, he moved back to Arkansas to be close to Joe and his kids, JP and Lauren.  

Papa was a master sergeant and served in WW2 and the Korean Conflict.  I remember the stories he used to tell me as a kid and I wonder how he survived since the marines are always on the front line.  I have a lot of respect for our military men/women and I try to make a point to tell them that anytime we see them in uniform at the airports.

Uncle Joe coordinated the funeral service in Arkansas on Wednesday.  Matthew and I went to the ceremony along with my family.  Matthew remembers Papa Guido and we mention him in our prayers often.  I thought it would be good for Matthew to see a funeral so he tagged along.  He was a good traveler.  The funeral was very nice with the military three-volley salute and flag presentation.  We think Papa would have liked it.

My siblings: Lori, Mike, Greg, and myself

Happy Birthday Audrey

Since we didn't do much for Audrey's 1st birthday, we decided to have a big party for her 2nd birthday.  We invited all her friends from school, neighbors, and friends with kids around the same age group.  We held the party on Saturday morning and the weather was unusually warm - which worked out nicely for a December birthday party.  

 The birthday girl!

 The spread included chicken nuggets, mashed potato bar, cereal, donuts, brownies, fruit, string cheese, and cupcakes

 We hired a balloon clown to twist balloons for the kids - it was a hit!

Davis

 Audrey and Hazel

 The kids played a flower game

 Jojo

 Hazel and Audrey

 Dora pinata

Pinata fun

Audrey's Dr Appt

On Friday, we went to the doctor for Audrey's 2 year check up.

Weight 25 lbs 12 oz, 39%
Height 32.7 inches, 20%
Head circumference 48.3 cm, 72%


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It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

We woke up to snow on Monday morning- Audrey's Birthday! Andy made breakfast and we sang Happy Birthday to Audrey. She just smiled soaking it in. In the evening, we celebrated with ice cream cake. Audrey had cupcakes at school with her friends so it was a special day.

Over the weekend, we went to a Christmas party at the nursing home. I took Matthew to a puppet show, the nutcracker, and he enjoyed his mama time. Andy ran a relay in the white rock marathon race. It was a busy weekend.

Oh, the weather outside is frightful

Oh, the weather outside is frightful....NOT!  We started the first day of December with 80 degree weather.  This is just insane!  But the kids enjoyed the outdoors in their summer clothes.  I'm glad that I didn't switch out their clothes.

We had a picnic in the park on Saturday morning.  I picked up some food from Jason's Deli "to go" but we made sure to enjoy the frozen yogurt in the store first. Audrey has been wearing pullups every day at school after the Thanksgiving break and she has been doing a great job in staying dry.  I bought some Dora panties and she was so excited to wear them Saturday morning for the first time. She immediately peed in them within the first 10 minutes in the kitchen (on the tile thank goodness) and quickly learned that she needed to go the potty or else we have to change the panties.  But she did very well for her first day and got the hang of it.  Mommy was exhausted with the frequent potty runs but overall it was a good day.  People think that she is early for potty training and that I may be pushing her too soon, but I tell you that she acts like she is ready and really we are the ones that are slowing her down just because we don't want to be inconvienced with running her to the toliet all day, especially if we are trying to run errands. 

Matthew learned about advent during his sunday school class on Sunday.  I am 1 of 3 teachers so I get to be a part of his learning process.  He can successfully recite the Lord's prayer without any hesitation.  He asks "what is temptation?"  I told him a good example - he has to make 2 decisions: 1) to give Audrey a toy when she wants to play with it or 2) run and hide with the toy so she cries.  This is temptation for a 4 year old and he frequently does #2.

our princess in her flip flops

The kids are ready to play "Super Ducky" with Daddy after bathtime

Look at Mr. Big Boy in his big boy carseat

Macie's 5th Birthday Party in Toy Story Theme

Adorable Macie

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Thanksgiving

Getting Ready for Thanksgiving

We spent some time this weekend getting ready to host Thanksgiving.  Andy made a list and then went to the grocery store.  I told him to pick up some baked beans for the kids Thanksgiving parties on Monday.  Andy came home and unpacked all the groceries while taking Audrey in tow since Matthew and I were at a birthday party.  It was 8pm on Sunday night and we were winding down for the evening when we realized Andy forgot the baked beans! It was the one thing that was needed immediately.  He ran back to the grocery store that night.  To his credit, I didn't write it down on the list.  He's such a good husband.

Matthew saw Daddy writing things on a list and he wanted to make his list for Santa.  Andy has mentioned that Santa is always watching.  Matthew likes to pick on Audrey sometimes so it's good to use this to make him behave.  For the most part, Matthew helps Audrey and he likes playing with her.  But sometimes he will purposely steal a toy that she is playing with and run with an evil grin on his face.

I took them to Chic-Fil-A one morning last week and Matthew helped Audrey up the climbing section to make it to the top.  On each step, he would pick her up and scoot her up on to the next step.  It was so cute to watch.  And then they both went down the slide.  Audrey came down the slide with a scared look on her face but then a big smile.  She really enjoyed it.  A couple of people in the restaurant were watching and they were getting a kick out of big brother helping his little sister.

I went to their Thanksgiving parties on Monday and the kids enjoyed seeing Mommy at school.

Warm November in Texas

It's been a busy week.  Andy had a couple of dinners this week while I went to Santiago, Chile for work.  Ms Krystal helped us out to keep up the routine.  I left Tuesday night and returned Friday morning.  The kids and Daddy were happy to see Mommy!  

As I was putting away the halloween decorations this weekend, Audrey pulled out the skeleton and started pushing it around in the little fire truck.  Can you tell that she needs some dolls?  

 Rusty's favorite chair

 Meet George.  When Matthew puts these glasses on he says 

MB:  "Hi!  I'm George"

Mommy:  "Hello.  How are you doing, George?"

MB:  "I'm fine"

MB:  "I'm drinking my wine" as he drinks his orange juice.

Then he takes off the glasses and says "Mommy, it's me!"

One day, Matthew talked about his brief case that the men at the airport carry.  So when I put the glasses on, I said that I was George, I am drinking my coffee and reading the newspaper at the airport with my briefcase.  Matthew thought it was funny.

Halloween 2012

We have been so busy with Halloween festivities this year.  It started Oct 20th weekend where I picked up goody bags and flashlights for Matthew's Halloween party at school. The kids decorated the bags and even Audrey enjoyed putting a package of goldfish in each goody bag.  They were so cute after we finished that I took a picture.

On Friday, Oct 26th I went to Matthew and Audrey's halloween parties at their daycare.  Matthew changed into his wolf costume just before nap time and got very hot in his costume since he slept in it!  The weather cooled down that day and Matthew was the only one that was comfortable outside while all the other kids were cold.  They trick or treated at their school by going to different classrooms and then had a party where they enjoyed ice cream, cookies, cupcakes, fruit, juice boxes.  I went to Audrey's classroom and she was happy to see me and wouldn't let go of me.  She was enjoying some snacks with her friends around a little table. 

We then went on to Daddy's work for his Halloween office event.  The kids won "Best Halloweeny Costume" and received a prize.  Everyone thought they were adorable.  I let the kids eat some candy and then we went to Andy's office where Matthew drew on the dry erase board.  After all the sugar, we left the office as quickly as we could.  I knew the kids were going to crash without having better food in their system.  As we were leaving, Audrey grabbed the whole pumpkin full of candy and wouldn't let it go.  I had to pry it out of her hands.  She screamed and we ran out of there as fast as we could since people were trying to work at their computers.

On Monday, I picked up the kids and took them to my office at AA.  The kids enjoyed walking through tunnels and seeing super heros dressed up.  Audrey was catching on to the trick or treat thing and enjoyed picking out the candy and putting it into her basket.  I was smart and picked up chicken nuggets and fruit from chic-fil-A prior to the event so the kids behaved much better. 

On Tuesday, I took the kids to the nursing home for a halloween party.  The senior citizens loved their costumes.  I picked up KFC and we went to the park across the street from the nursing home 30 minutes prior and the kids loved that.  We had a little picnic in the park.

Finally, it was halloween on Wednesday and mama was exhausted!  But we had another eventful night.  We went to the neighbors house for a pre and post halloween party.  The kids bobbed for apples and trick or treated around the neighborhood together.  We then enjoyed smores with a small fire afterwards.  Audrey was much slower than the other kids but she was determined to go to every house they did.  Her arms and legs were going as fast as she could.  I tried to hold her hand and she would push me away and say "no".  The people at the houses would say "OH, there's the big bad wolf, where's little red riding hood?" and we would say "she's coming" and then a few minutes Audrey would show up out of the dark and grab the candy and then blow kisses and say "bye bye".