Valentine's

The girls made these butterfly valentines for their daycare friends. I cut them out and put through the pixie stick, and the girls decorated them. Bella made the faces too. They love it when we do crafts, and Valentine's Day was a good excuse to do one. I had been neglecting big craft projects for a while.

We had our first showing and open house over the weekend which means we all, including the dogs, have to be out of the house. Poor Carlo gets stuck in the car with the dogs while the girls and I go out and run some errands or play at McDonalds. We brought the dogs' bed in the van, but Pasta wanted to ride on it instead of in it. That dog is a little nuts!

And our new house is actually starting to look like a house! We are shocked how fast it is going up. Bella colored a bunch of pictures that she wants to hang in the new house, and we got to visit her new school for next year. It seems really nice, and there will be at least 2 girls going into kindergarten with her in our new neighborhood. Lucy doesn't seem to understand the whole moving thing - she just goes along with flow.

Our house is ready to go!

Well, here it is. The finished basement bathroom! Just in time for us to sell. If I had to do it again, I wouldn't, but now that its done I'm happy we have it - only if it is a bonus selling point. I think my dad peed in the toilet a few times so it got some use, but other than that it hasn't been touched. The buyers of our house better be grateful for that room!

Our realtor came over and took all our listing pics and we should be on the market sometime close to the weekend. We have decluttered, packed, painted, and cleaned. Last weekend was exhausting! I hope it sells fast because I don't know how long I can maintain a clean house.

Poor Bella and Lucy have learned to play well together and on their own through much of this. After the realtor left on Monday, I took the girls outside to go sledding. It felt good to dedicate some playtime to them. We've been skipping our weekly library run and I didn't even sign them up for a story time. Luckily our new home is near a McDonald's playland, so now when we check out the building status we stop there for them to play. Lucy asks me almost daily, "go buh-bye? go m-donald's?".

January 2010

Here's our January:Taormina family Christmas at our house. Sal played dinosaurs with Bella, Lucy & Isabel and I think he got in a little too deep since he couldn't get away from the dinosaur attacks all night!

Carlo had a birthdayI got some nasty flu bug or virus that took me out for about 5 days. I've never experienced night sweats where you wake up completely drenched, requiring a change of clothes. It wasn't pretty. Thank goodness I had my parents there for part of the time to help out. So far the rest of the family is healthy, knock on wood.

Packing, cleaning, finishing that stupid bathroom in the basement (I've threatened to board up that room if one more leak down there reappears). Our goal is to get the house listed next week. Still have a TON more cleaning to do.

Our lot staked out and ready to go. Ground breaking is scheduled for next week.

We try to get out and have a little fun too.

Christmas '09

Merry Christmas!

We left for my parent's house a day earlier because of the weather, and the drive wasn't all that great up until Fond du Lac. We saw a car 360 ahead of us on Hwy 94 in Milwaukee. We also left my parent's house a day earlier because of weather. They were supposed to get up to 10 inches on Saturday, so we left on Friday.

Craig and Clark and Beth and fam were already there when we arrived. Meg and fam stayed home this year, as they were just here at Thanksgiving. We just hung out during the day on Christmas Eve. Paige took the kids outside for a while even though it was kind of sleeting/raining. We got those final gifts wrapped and waited until it was time to open presents. Clark set up a 'pizza party' in the basement for all of us. Santa, with a shaving cream beard and pillow-stuffed suit, made an unexpected appearance out on the deck. Bella and Lucy were freaked out and Clark was sure he looked like Grandpa....

To make the night a bit more festive, we all got glow bracelets from Craig & Clark to wear. The favorites of the night: Lucy loves the set of dress up shoes from Grandma & Grandpa, Bella loves the dinosaurs she got from Santa, and I got a surprise gift from Bryce (Meg) - a Little Miss Sunshine doll. This just happens to be the same name as a character I used to pretend to be when I was really little. It made us all laugh.

Hope you all had a wonderful, merry Christmas!!

Bethlehem

If you celebrate Christmas, are in the Milwaukee area, and want to do something that is geared more towards the true meaning of Christmas, definitely take the time to check out Elmbrook's Bethlehem Marketplace. We were taken through a time tunnel to Bethlehem at the time of Jesus's birth. We each got a few shekels to shop in the marketplace, got to see real sheep, camels, goats, chickens, etc, and many of the villagers there explained how life was back then, and told some of the story leading up to the birth. The volunteers there really did a great job and never came out of character. Bella got a little scared of the tax collectors, but that's not such a bad lesson to learn at an early age!

Making our own calendar to count down to Christmas and having a few wrapped presents under the tree makes for a very impatient Bella!

December '09

The holidays are here! We've been busy but I'm proud to say that I have all my Christmas shopping done! We made Bella & Lucy's teachers these mugs and made some hot cocoa mix to go along with. I like the girls to contribute to their gifts and they get excited making something. Painting with non-washable paint did get a little stressful though, especially when Lucy started whipping her brush all over her face!

Last weekend we had the daycare Christmas party, no parents allowed. So Carlo & I got to go out for lunch and since I had my shopping done, we went home and got some stuff done around the house. I got some painting done, and Lucy no longer has a changing table and diaper pail in her room! Those have been fixtures in that room for about 5 yrs! Her room looked so big after that, that I decided to move some toy bins up there. The girls got to visit Santa when we picked them up but neither one wanted to get remotely close to him! Bella gave him a high-5 but that's it.

We also had our first real snow last week. We went out and made snow angels, but it was SO cold we didn't stay out long. Lucy asks daily if she can go outside and ride her bike. Poor kid. I'm sure she would try to ride it in the cold and snow, but I won't let her.

Thanksgiving '09

Happy Thanksgiving! We had my parents, Meg & William and family, and Beth and Abby over at our house this year. It was a good time but I had a pretty rotten cold the week before and our washer decided to die during that week too! I even lost my voice for 2 days. I was lucky that my mom did most the cooking and my family is forgiving that my house wasn't sparkling. We ended up having ham with our dinner since we had some issues with the turkey. Don't ask but Carlo ate it.

Friday my sisters, Abby, mom, and I did all the black Friday deals. Out at 4:30 AM, ready for margaritas at 11 AM. I have my Christmas shopping almost complete with the little I did on Cyber Monday today. Yea!

While we were shopping the kids and dads went to Flabbergast, a bouncy house place that is about a block from our new house. We met up with them after our lunch and then went home for a much needed nap! Carlo & Dad fixed our washer that day too! Then it was over to Beth's that night for pizza.

Saturday we put up the tree and all the Christmas decorations. Bella was SO excited to get them all out. The holidays are just getting more and more fun as the girls get older.

My dad rolling the girls around on the floor.