With God by my side...

all things truly are possible!!

even frosting 4 batches of christmas cutouts with 3 little boys!!  i have been putting it off all week, but with the cookie bake off creeping up next weekend, i knew i had to get these cookies frosted!  and i am so glad i did.  what i thought might turn into something dreadful, actually ended up being a lot of fun.  the boys never faught over who's turn it was to help with the sprinkles, no one tried to steal any cookies, no one fell off the kitchen chairs and the house and kids were actually pretty 'mess free' when we were done!  i was impressed!

tuscan is such a great helper in the kitchen, in all aspects!  frank is already teaching him many of the ins and outs... tuscan told me one day that he is going to be frank's sous chef!

  * for more pictures, check out my facebok page, there is a whole album of them!!

the magic...

i dont know that i could ever pin point exactly what it is about the holidays, but there is something that makes this early portion of the winter season so magical and i love it!  whether it be the smell of fresh baked cookies, the twinkle of the christmas lights, the kids rosey cheeks...or it could be the prospect of misletoe around the next corner, toasting warm eggnog with your love and the warmth of fleece blankets.  its all so magical!  and when the snow starts falling (unlike here) it makes it all ten times better!  what would christmas be without snow, i have always wondered?  i have never envied those that live down south during the month of december...by early february, yes, but never this time of year!  the sparkle of the snow only adds to the magic.  the excitement on the kids faces that first morning with a fresh coat covering the front lawn...priceless!  but whats even more priceless is getting that first 5 inches of the year, followed by a 45 degree day and pulling in your driveway to be greeted by....

FROSTY!!

maybe if our snowman can find 'magic in that old bills cap they found' we could lend it to our home team next year and maybe find ourselves in a winning season! but i wont hold my breath, because poor Frosty only lasted one day before he turned into a puddle and two branches on the driveway!

just thought i'd share...these are the fun things Frank does with the boys while i'm at work!  its so good for them that they at least have one fun parent!  although, they did "help" make the cutout dough with me tonight for bakefest 2009 at our parents house tomorrow - on the menu this year...cinnamon chip biscotti, lemon pudding cookies, cream cheese cutouts, peanut butter cup cookies, m&m cookies, oatmeal toffee cookies, snowballs, seed cookies, peanut butter bars...just to name a few!

Wishes...

It seems as though the theme for the Christmas season in the retail world this year is "12 days of wishing" and today i have been blessed enough to say that all the things i could have wished for this year, actually came true!

Frank and I closed on our house today!!  its a process we have been pursuing since march of this year and now just in time for christmas, we are once again proud homeowners!  the whole process was so smooth - although not stress free, but it all worked out better than we could have imagined and i give all thanks to God and to those who have been praying for us along the way.  Many of you know of the snags we had been coming up against the last few months and by the grace of God, the way was paved and we have reached the new starting point!

I can't say that this is something i put much thought into from my own heart, 3 years ago when we decided to stay in the house and buy it from Beth, but today - now that we have closed on it, i am feeling something special about the idea of raising my boys in the house their dad grew up in! How awesome, really... and in all truth, this house is perfect for us!  we would have never found this perfect of a situation if we had looked elsewhere, so i believe it to be just one more confirmation that God always has a plan and although we may not understand it right from the start, we have to trust in Him and just go with it.  He knows what He is doing way better than i ever do!

i would love to try and pretend/promise that i could bring you all up to date since my last posting, or even to say that i will still go back and finish the posts from our vacation - but lets be real - i dont think i can even remember what i did last week...so i will try to become more consistant again. a new year is coming and i really would love to keep up my blog again, so that i do have something to look back at when i get to a time in my life when i have the time to remember where the years went! i make no promises, but i can say...the more that hold me accountable to daily blog postings the better your chances are to getting one!  i love a challange, but sometimes i need a reminder!

I hope each and everyone of you is enjoying the beginnings of this holiday season and i hope you are all feeling as wonderfully blessed as we are this year!  God is good and with him, life is amazing!

my preschooler!!

Not only was today our first day back to reality, but it was also tuscan's preschool orientation day! I cannot believe my baby boy is starting preschool already! its so surreal.

it was kind of sunny, but he was a good sport about me taking a few pics anyway!

we were running a few minutes behind this morning because i had to drop the twins off at Nonna Beth's office (much thanks!) but as soon as we walked into his classroom, he went right with his teacher to hang up his backpack, told her he had to go "pee pee" and i went on my way to the orientation room! when the moms were released we were all standing outside the classroom door waiting with smiles while our kids sang their farewell for the day song! it was awesome. im so proud of him!!

now to play catch up and try to get back on track...say a prayer for me!

all amazing things must come to an end...

coming soon...

Farewell, for now...(day 9)

coming soon....

The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo...(day 8)

coming soon....

Our Favorite Place...and a Baby Party!! (day 7)

Garden of the Gods....there are really no words to describe the wonder of this beautiful place.  its so breath-taking its almost hard to believe its real...and not only that its real but its not MAN made!  when i see places as gorgeous as the landscape that surrounded us for nearly 4 years and once again this weekend, it makes me feel God so strongly in my heart.  i cannot imagine any other way that something so amazing could be created!  maybe thats why living in CO seemed to have filled such a huge gap in my life.  not only did i find my true relationship with Christ there, but the area we were living in just surrounded me with his majesty.  in CO the air is different, cleaner, purer, fresher...the water is clearer, sparkling...the scenery is breathtaking...people arent kidding when they say "CO is God's Country".

this used to be the "entrance to my backyard"

as im sure you can imagine, it was wonderful being there today.  it was so amazing to be able to share such a special place with our 3 boys!  the only thing missing was our dogs, it was their favorite place to go hiking, leash free (when we went off path), so we brought them each back a big stick!  it will be fun to see if they remember and react to the scent!

after a decent hike around garden of the gods, and plenty of photo op for kellie, i think we may have gotten a pretty decent family shot!  so we packed up back to the house to drop off all the boys and kellie and i headed over to her Granny's for her baby shower!! 

i still cannot believe that Kellie is pregnant.  we have been talking about the fact for a few months now but even being here, with her next to me, i still cannot believe it!  i am beyond excited for her and randy.  i know the two of them will be an amazing parenting team together and their baby will be so blessed to have such a wonderful family.  great kids are a product of great parents!  it was wonderful to catch up with some old friends at the shower and to put a face to the name of many of the people who have been a part of kellie's life for, well, forever!  (pics from the shower were all on kellie's camera!)

after the shower, frank and i took the boys for a long promised trip to the playground where we met up with another of my CO girlfriends...Kelli - yes another kelly with another different spelling!  Kelli was pregnant with now 4 year old daughter Eva when we left in '05 and now also has a little boy Dante, who is about 2 months older than the twins...so it was super fun for her and i to get caught up a bit but even more so to finally meet each others kids in person and watch them play together!  aside from a little tift between Mr. Macho Tuscan and Eva, they all got a long really well!

the night was ended with a good old fashioned George-in-the-kitchen family dinner.  it was awesome!  he was insistant on "cooking italian for the italians".  and i must say, he did a great job!  the best part of the dinner though was without a doubt MommaRita's homemade chocolate ice cream!  i have never in my life had homemade ice cream and now that i have i think it might be the next kitchenaid mixer attachment we have to invest in, because it was amazing!

this whole week has been a little crazy, not many naps, lots of being in the car, tons of things that are just out of the ordinary as far as our routine goes...but as i sit here typing the details of our day i am so grateful for every second that hasnt been wasted.  this is a once in a great while opportunity for us and i dont want to miss a thing!  i cannot believe we only have one day left here...3 days is not nearly enough to get even close to all of it in!

Catching up...(day 6)

Today started with great intentions..."lets take the boys out to lunch and get some shopping in!" right...what were we thinking?? we took them out to lunch, kellie, mommarita and I...but it was more work than it was worth because we were nearing nap time. i did at least get in another round of Chik-fil-a while i still could but then we headed back to the house.

The guys were heading to the shooting range (frank, randy and george) to sneak in some very overdo "man time" so us girls just wanted to take advantage of equal opportunity! but instead of us all going out to run errands, the twins went down for their nap. Tuscan of course didn't want to lay down for fear he might miss something so Kellie and i decided to take him out and about to run our errands with us, with much hope he would fall asleep in the car. and he sure did, within minutes!! Kellie and i spent a few hours playing musical car seats. i would run into a store to get what i needed, then she would run into the store that she needed. it worked out nicely, we got everything done that we had set out to do! and tuscan woke up just in time for us to run into Starbucks for some much needed Chai's!

while in Starbucks we were able to chat with one of the barista's who is the sister in law to a girl that we used to work with - that was pretty cool. and while we were getting updates on some of our favorite regulars, two of them walked through the door! a mom/daughter duo that used to come in everyday...and still do! it was nice to see a familiar face, if only there had been a few more there this afternoon!

then tonight frank and i and the boys headed over to hang out with some of our old friends, kirsten and brandon and their two girls. we were so fortunate to get in touch with them via facebook this summer and it was so exciting to actually be able to see them tonight! before we moved they had found out they were expecting their second baby, their first was about a year old. they are now expecting their third! they have built an amazingly gorgeous house, they got the dog they had always dreamed of...whom i unofficially named!

years ago, right after we got taenato...Kirsten and Brandon had complimented his name and said that someday they wanted to get an all white Akita, if they did, what name would i suggest? my response - avalanche!! what else would you name an all while dog living in CO?? and they sure did name him avalanche! he is gorgeous...but not nearly as gorgeous as their two girls!

we enjoyed some take out from texas roadhouse with them at their house. this pregnancy has Kirsten pretty sick and with all the out and about we have been doing it made the night perfect to just hang out at their house and let the kids play so we could get caught up a little bit.

you don't realize how much you actually miss someone until you are surrounded by their presence again. we sure missed those guys and cannot wait until we see them again! it was wonderful to see how well our kids got along, especially for a first time play date! some friends are forever friends and kirsten and brandon definitely fall into that category!

i have to say, i wish more than anything i would have gotten more pics from tonight...at least a group shot of all the kids and maybe one of the 4 of us...but i guess its just all the more reason to get back out here again soon!

Day 5 - CO here we come!!

we took the morning pretty easy today, knowing we had quite a few hours of driving ahead of us tonight (appx. 7hrs) we thought it might be a good idea to save our energy but let the kids release theirs. so we killed two birds with one stone, we took the kids up to Ft. Riley, the post that Randy works at with a picnic lunch. the kids played on the playground. we ate some lunch, enjoyed the sunshine! then we drove around the post to see the housing area that kellie and randy would have lived in. we saw the area where all the army trucks were parked. we also saw quite a bit of historical sites within the post, it was pretty cool! when i said to tuscan-"look babe, theres some soliders" he said "no mom, army guys!!" it was pretty cute.

then we headed home for naps and packed up the truck. when randy called to say he was on his way, kellie and i made a chipotle run to pick up dinner and by 530 we were on the road. "on the road again..." it seems to be the theme song of our trip!



we pulled in the driveway at kellie's parents about 1am...tears rimmed my eyes when her mom walked out the door and i was standing there holding matteo! i havent seen her at all since we've had the boys and although she has seen pictures, it just isnt the same! i am so excited to be here!!

thankfully the boys were amazing the whole ride and they went to bed without any issues. waking up in the morning to the fresh mountain air, surrounded by so many people that we have missed dearly will certainly make every hour spent in the car completely worth it!

midway...a day of rest! day 4

i think it finally caught up with us today...it was about time we all take a nap! kellie woke up not feeling well-the start of her first pregnancy cold, i was really tired and irritable. the kids were all in much need of a nap, so for the early part of the day, thats what we did!

when randy got home we ate some dinner, used up some of the perishables before taking off for the weekend to CO...then we packed everyone up (dogs included) and headed to the water where kellie and randy like to take the dogs for a swim! it was much breezier there than any of us anticipated, but it was gorgeous nonetheless. i never would have pictured KS to have a lake that looked the way this one did...it was huge! and the dam at the end of it was impressively large as well!

the dogs weren't the only ones who decided to take a swim, tuscan thought it might be good to test out the waters too, only to find out it was way to cold! and of course we didnt have any extra clothes on us so we stripped him down and dressed him up in franks t-shirt! it was way to huge on him and i was afraid the wind would pick him up and blow him away, so we tied it up like a toga! he wasnt all that happy about it but he looked darn cute!

after the "swim" we headed back to the house to drop off the dogs and took the kids out for ice cream and some energy kill time on the playground at Sonic. they had a blast, and so did frank and randy! the ice cream wasnt bad either...although i left feeling quite stuffed!

tomorrow is the big day, a day we have anticipated for a little over 4 years...we are heading back to CO for the first time since we moved home...thankfully we are all driving in kellie and randy's truck, otherwise it might be to hard for us to turn around on monday and head back to where we belong!

a day in the state capitol! - day 3

up and out the door pretty early today. we packed up and punched our destination into the GPS and headed to the state capitol to visit their zoo! and guess what...topeka has an amazing zoo, quite possibly the best we have ever been to and its in the process of getting better. there were so many new exhibits being constructed, i can only imagine how much better it will be in a year when kellie and randy can bring their own baby there!

all of the habitats were so natural and spacious. it was the kind of zoo that reassures you that these animals are living a good life in captivity. they had posted all of the personal information about the animals, their names, birthdates, where they came from. many of the animals were siblings - the female lions were sisters, born of the same litter and in the wild! the male on the other hand had been human raised. there were 3 tigers, all from the same litter, a brother and two sisters. the tigers were only a pane of glass away from us and the male was pacing back and forth. it gave you the sense that you could just reach right out and pet them! it was awesome. the boys loved it!

frank and his boys!

after the zoo we headed to the mall for some chik-fil-a for lunch. it was just as good as we remembered it and the service from the food court in the mall was amazing! while there i grabbed two new pairs of much needed work pants at old navy, they were a steal of a deal and the best part is, they actually fit! i also found for baby mac super cute pea pod jammies! tuscan was so excited to "surprise" kellie with them when she got home!

the guys went golfing this afternoon and then met us at old chicago's for dinner, another resturant frank and i had been looking forward to hitting up while we were out this way. as much as we missed a lot of the "buffalo food" while we lived in CO, there is a lot of CO resturants that we sure do miss now. Our pizza's were amazing, the italian nachos were to die for and we all over indulged on a pizza size chocolate chip cookie with vanilla ice cream for dessert. despite how late it was by the time we made it to dinner, the boys did awesome!

we ended the night with another 2 rounds of Wii bowling and tonight, randy was the one that forgot to show up. kellie and i kicked their butts again! if we had more friends to hang out with back home, it might even be kind of fun to invest in our own Wii!!

now its time to sleep...rest up for another day of fun!

The Sunset Zoo

Day 2 -
Kellie and Randy headed back to work this morning, for a typical Monday and Frank and I packed the kids up and headed to the most local of the local zoo's. we didnt have the highest of expectations given that we are in a super small town, but the zoo was actually very nice. it was very clean, very hands on. there was a good variety of animals and the kids loved the playground!

a baby chimp, born this spring! he was super cute and super playful!

a pelican, the boys asked him if he knew where Nemo was!

a bald eagle - they are just so gorgeous! such a strong american symbol...

tuscan was trying to see how close he could actually get to the peacock! they were roaming around everywhere!

my boys, they all looked so cute today!

im not quite sure when it was that they all became so grown up,

but this summer they sure have turned into little men!

we finished up at the zoo just in time for kellie to take her lunch break. she met us at Sonic, a first for frank and the kids and i. super delish - wish we had one in the Buff...we have the commercials, but we're still lacking in the actual establishment!

the kids also had a blast playing on the play ground there.

we spent the remained of the afternoon hanging out around the house. we had hotdogs and burgers on the grill for dinner and then kellie and i snuck out for some well overdo girl time together. we went out to wander the mall for a bit and got pedicures (a tradition for us), had ice cream and starbucks and wandered through target...just like the good ol' days.

its so wonderful to be here, to be spending time with my other other half. there was a moment on the drive down that i was relishing in the excitement of where i was actually driving to when it suddenly hit me that in a week i would be saying good-bye. before i was even half way here, i was crying that i would have to leave. as much as i hate that we live so far away from each other, i am so beyond grateful that we can see each other once a year and pick up right where we left off, as if it had only been a week that had passed.

kellie and i are so blessed to have become friends and to have held on the our friendship over the miles over the years. i cannot imagine my life without her, she is my rock in so many ways. i love her, my kids love her, our husbands love each other! God so had a plan when he brought the two of us together and i truly feel in my heart that it was definitely a life long plan!

now to rest up for another action packed, fun filled day! (only after a teams game of Wii bowling...kellie and i are going to kick butt...)

our KS vacation (day 1)

i know, i havent really blogged all summer, but too bad...i've been making the most of my time in other ways!

we are on our first family of 5 half-way-cross-country roadtrip, visiting kellie and randy (and baby Mac) in Kansas! we left home at 330 saturday afternoon and excitedly pulled in their driveway shortly after 12noon today!

it was a long drive and being the middle of the night for most of it, there really wasnt much to see. but dispite it all, the kids were amazing! they didnt sleep nearly as much as i anticipated they would. we were really hoping they would sleep there normal 9-10 hours during the night, but a movie at 3am is not something we would usually call normal! there was minimal whining/crying the whole 20 hours that we were in the van! what can i say, my boys are amazing!! frank and i even seem to be doing ok, although it sure will feel nice to go to sleep laying down tonight!

when i called kellie to let her know we were getting close, she asked how we felt about arriving to a lunch from chipotle! of course there was no arguement on that one...i think we have an unofficial goal set to see how many times we can eat chipotle in one week! it tasted just as good as we remembered it to be and it was gi-normous! kellie said the size was the advantage to eating in a college town!

once we got the van unloaded, the carseats switched over to kellie's truck and everyone showered/bathed...we re-packed up and headed to Kansas City to enjoy a fun filled dinner at the T-Rex Cafe (operated by the same people that created the rainforest cafe!) and connected to it was a Build-A-Dino, operated by the Build-A-Bear company. so the kids each got to pick out and make their own Dino (thanks aunt kellie and uncle randy for the awesome bday present!!) to my surprise, all 3 boys picked out their dino's by themselves and they each named them on their own too! Tuscan named his Rex, Teo's is Ducks and Cenzo named his Boogie!! they are so cute and the boys love them. they carried them around like a new puppy as we wandered around the outdoor mall.

dinner there was delicious, but the service was something to question. the prices were a reflection of the atmosphere, but all in all the most important part for us was the company! although frank and randy have only even spent a few days together (the last time was the week of our wedding, 5 years ago) they are definitely a good pair! kellie and i got lucky that our primary significant others enjoy each others company as much as we need them too!

the twins got a little fussy on the ride home tonight, but i guess thats to be expected after all we put them through in the last 24 hours! another 4 hours in the car was probably not our best choice, but we got it out of the way at least! and by the time we got home they were so sound asleep that we changed them into their jammies and they rolled over in their beds and we never heard a peep!

kellie and randy are working semi-normal hours this week, so tomorrow morning frank and i will be heading to the Manhattan Zoo with the boys and the GPS! we plan to meet kellie on her lunch break and im sure the evening will be filled with something fun for all of us! so stay tuned, my plan is to post everyday we are away!