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!